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Salmon trap at Dolwyddelan

Maker

(artist)
1812-1845

Title

Date of Production

1842

Medium

graphite, watercolour, bodycolour and touches of gum arabic, with scratching out, on wove paper, laid down (the backing sheet originally had arched upper corners which were later made up, but the pressure of the arched corners has been impressed through to the recto)

Dimensions

Height: 50.1 cm
Width: 38 cm

Accession Number

D.1967.WS.65

Mode of Acquisition

William Wycliffe Spooner, bequest, 1967

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

A famously fast worker, Müller is best known for the brilliance of his watercolour technique. This powerful view of a salmon trap in North Wales, probably painted on the spot, was used as the basis for a finished oil painting. Müller creates a blustery atmospheric effect using a wide variety of marks and techniques: a mass of curved lines applied with a dry brush in the surging water, for instance, and dashes of white gouache on the slender wind-blown branches of the tree.

Notes

Preparatory to an oil painting shown at the British Institution's annual exhibition, Pall Mall, February 1843 (no. 238, current location unknown). Another watercolour, horizontal in format, is in the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. A third drawing of the same subject was sold at Sotheby's, 15 March 1990, lot 126.

Provenance

Charles William Dyson Perrins (1864-1958); his estate sale, Sotheby's (London), 22 April 1959, lot 59; purchased there by Colnaghi (London); purchased there by Mr and Mrs William Wycliffe Spooner, Ilkley (1882-1967), 5 October 1959 (£140); Spooner Bequest 1967

Exhibition History

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/02/2011-15/05/2011

British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Huntington Museum and Art Gallery, Los Angeles, 12/02/2005-15/05/2005

British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Huntington Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 12/02/2005-15/05/2005; Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 18/07/2005-23/10/2005; Hermitage Rooms, Somerset House, London, 16/11/2005-12/02/2006 ...More

English Landscape Drawings [catalogue not found], Rye Art Gallery, England, 1971

Masters of the Watercolour - Watercolours from the Spooner
Collection, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, 1969

English Water-Colours: Memorial Exhibition to William Wycliffe
Spooner, Harrogate, 1968 ...Less

Literature

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
cat. no. 21
ill. on p. 94

The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours, Courtauld Institute Galleries; Huntington Library; Wordsworth Trust, 2005-06
cat. no. 80
ill. on p. 233

Greenacre, Francis and Sheena Stoddard, W.J. Müller 1812-1845, Bristol 1991
pp. 84 and 87, under no. 53 ...More

Masters of the Watercolour - Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, 1969
cat. no. 49
ill.

English Water-Colours: Memorial Exhibition to William Wycliffe Spooner, Harrogate, 1968
cat. no. 71

Solly, N. Neal, Memoir of the Life of William James Müller, London 1875
pp. 152, 153 and 155 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower left corner, grey wash, titled, signed and dated by the artist: "Salmon Trap. / Dolvodellan. WM. 1842.". Verso (backing sheet): upper right corner, graphite, cut off and obscured: “Le[…]”.

Collector's mark: none.

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