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Mont Saint Michel

Maker

(artist)
1803-1874

Title

Mont Saint Michel

Date of Production

(?) 1821

Medium

graphite, grey wash, white bodycolour and added fixative on wove paper, laid down

Dimensions

Height: 46.3 cm
Width: 26.5 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.4196

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

Label Text

Seen from the east, the Gothic abbey of Mont Saint Michel rises above a humble house of rough-hewn stone, its soaring height and delicate stonework emphasised by the narrow format of the sheet. Boys’s reputation rested on his acutely observed topographical views of sites in France and the Low Countries, and this drawing may have been intended for reproduction as a print; the subtle use of white bodycolour is typical of such drawings by Boys and many of his contemporaries.

Notes

It is suggested that Boys may have drawn this in 1821, when he may have visited Normandy with Bonington.

Provenance

Walker Galleries (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Tresors des Abbayes Normandes, Musee des Antiquites, Rouen, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Caen, 27/04/1979-28/10/1979

Thomas Shotter Boys Centenary Exhibition, London & England, 01/11/1974-01/12/1974

Thomas Shotter Boys Centenary Exhibition, Nottingham & England, 01/10/1974-01/11/1974

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 7

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: unable to check due to thick paper - may be laid down.

Inscription: Recto: lower right edge, graphite, titled and signed by the artist: "Mont St. Michel / within the walls / T S Boys". Verso (backing sheet): lower right, graphite: "Ford".

Collector's mark: none.

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