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Grey wagtail

Maker

(artist)
1753-1828

Title

Grey wagtail

Date of Production

(circa) 1797

Medium

graphite, pen and black ink, watercolour and touches of bodycolour on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 17 cm
Width: 21.8 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3827

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Notes

This drawing is a design for a wood engraving in Bewick's History of British Birds (1797). It was purchased by Robert Witt as a drawing of a yellow wagtail, but we are grateful to Senior Lecturer Graham Rowe of the University of Derby for pointing out that this is in fact a male grey wagtail in its spring breeding plumage, with the grey throat distinguishing it from a yellow wagtail (April 2025).

Provenance

Squire Gallery (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d., for £15 2s (with the title Yellow wagtail); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Englische Aquarelle, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, and China, 1963-64

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 6

Inscriptions

Watermark: lower centre edge, fragment: segment of a circle, too fragmentary to see what it contains.

Inscription: Recto: lower right, pen and brown ink, signed?: "Thomas Bewick". Verso: lower left, graphite, in a circle: "E.2052".

Collector's mark: none.

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