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Swansea Castle

Maker

(artist)
1757-1827

Title

Swansea Castle

Date of Production

(circa) 1797

Medium

graphite, pen and grey and brown ink, watercolour on wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 15.4 cm
Width: 43.5 cm

Accession Number

D.1967.WS.79

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








Boat & ship industry

Label Text

This animated view focuses on marine activity: men carry timbers for shipbuilding while passengers wait to be ferried across the water in small boats. Rowlandson drew this scene on one of several journeys with his friend and patron, Henry Wigstead. An aquatint entitled ‘Swansey’ appears in Wigstead’s Remarks on a Tour to North and South Wales in the Year 1797 (1800). In the plate, a free adaption of the drawing, the castle is more pronounced. The strong diagonal element in the composition and the linear groupings are devices Rowlandson frequently used.

Notes

Rowlandson and Henry Wigstead made a tour of Wales in August 1797. The ruled-off area to the left suggests the artist's intention to cut the composition down to this format, thus lending prominence to the castle. A freely adapted version of this drawing is reproduced as an aquatint in Wigstead's 'Remarks on a Tour to North and South Wales, in the Year 1797', published 1800 (see British Museum 1873,0510.125).

Provenance

William Wycliffe Spooner, Ilkley (1882-1967); Spooner Bequest 1967

Exhibition History

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

The Northern Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and British Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/09/1986-30/11/1986; The Drawing Center, New York, 08/04/1986-26/07/1986

English Landscape Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/06/1979-01/09/1979 ...More

Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolours from the Spooner and Witt Collections, Australia, New Zealand, 1976-78

The William Spooner Collection and Bequest, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1974

English Watercolours: The Spooner Collection and Bequest, City Art Gallery, Bristol, 11/05/1973-02/06/1973

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

The William Spooner Collection and Bequest, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/04/1968-01/07/1968 ...Less

Literature

The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours, Courtauld Institute Galleries; Huntington Library; Wordsworth Trust, 2005-06
cat. no. 35
ill. on p. 143

The Northern Landscape. Flemish, Dutch and British Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, The Drawing Center, New York; Courtauld Institute Galleries, 1986
no. 102
ill. on p. 229

The Northern Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and British Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1986
cat. no. 102
ill. on p. 229 ...More

English Landscape Drawings and Watercolours, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1979
cat. no. 34

Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolours from the Spooner and Witt Collections, Australia, New Zealand, 1976 - 1978
cat. no. 15
ill.

The William Spooner Collection and Bequest, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1974
cat. no. 19

English Watercolours: The Spooner Collection and Bequest, City Art Gallery, Bristol, 1973
cat. no. 42

Masters of the Watercolour - Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, 1969
cat. no. 62

The William Spooner Collection and Bequest, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1968
cat. no. 23 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower left edge, grey ink: "Swansea Castle"; lower right edge, brown ink, signed: "T. Rowlandson". Verso: upper left, graphite, partly erased: "c/ g/-/- £2 20"; left centre, graphite: "Swansea Castle"; lower left, graphite, circled: "1804".

Collector's mark: none.

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