Distant view of Dunster, Somerset
Maker
1787-1855
Title
Distant view of Dunster, Somerset
Date of Production
1844
Medium
graphite, watercolour, pen and brown ink, bodycolour, with scratching out, on wove paper
Accession Number
D.2023.ST.2
Mode of Acquisition
The Spooner Charitable Trust, gift, 2023
Credit
The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)
Copyright
Work in the public domain
Location
Not currently on display
Label Text
The watercolourist Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding (1787-1855) was born in Sowerby, near Halifax, and trained with John Varley. In 1810 he began to exhibit at the Old Water-colour Society, becoming a full member in 1813 and president of the Society from 1831 until his death. Although he painted in oils, his reputation rests on his watercolour landscapes, which were as admired in France as in England; he won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1824 alongside John Constable and Richard Parkes Bonington.
This work, which was exhibited at the Old Water-colour Society in 1845, is one of several he painted over the course of his career in the environs of Dunster in Somerset. (Other examples include a watercolour exhibited at the OWS in 1826 sold at Christies, 3 July 2018, lot 134, and an oil painted in 1850 now in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, inv. no. 8394). In a restricted palette of blues, greens and warm browns, it shows an expansive view of pastures, woodland and rolling hills under a sky filled with scudding clouds, with Dunster castle and church in the middle ground and the distant sea in the background. The technique is highly refined, with sensitive use of scratching out to achieve highlights on the backs of the cows and the vegetation and tree trunks in the foreground.
This work, which was exhibited at the Old Water-colour Society in 1845, is one of several he painted over the course of his career in the environs of Dunster in Somerset. (Other examples include a watercolour exhibited at the OWS in 1826 sold at Christies, 3 July 2018, lot 134, and an oil painted in 1850 now in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, inv. no. 8394). In a restricted palette of blues, greens and warm browns, it shows an expansive view of pastures, woodland and rolling hills under a sky filled with scudding clouds, with Dunster castle and church in the middle ground and the distant sea in the background. The technique is highly refined, with sensitive use of scratching out to achieve highlights on the backs of the cows and the vegetation and tree trunks in the foreground.
Provenance
F. L. Leger Galleries, London, June 1965; Private collection; Newman Fine Art, Painswick, Gloucestershire; purchased there by the Spooner Trust; Gift from the Spooner Trust to The Courtauld, 2023
Inscriptions
Inscription: Recto: lower right, brown ink, signed and dated by the artist: Copley Fielding / 1844.
Collector's mark: none.
Watermark: none.
Collector's mark: none.
Watermark: none.
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