FDA-D.1621-2020

Object number

FDA-D.1621-2020

Object type

Watercolour

Title

A Beach Scene

Title Type

assigned by cataloguer

Description

Painted view of a beach and sea with rocks and figures in the background

Dimensions

height (frame): 543mm
width (frame): 630mm

Inscription

Inscribed lower left: 'E.W. Powell Sept 1931'; printed label taped to verso of frame, inscribed by the donor Francis Gladstone: ‘ERIC POWELL AND CHARLES GLADSTONE / WATERCOLOURS GIVEN IN MEMORY OF CHARLES GLADSTONE BY / FRANCIS GLADSTONE DECEMBER 2019. / Eric Powell & Charles Gladstone had been pupils at Eton, shared many interests and/were reunited as young Eton masters before World War I. / They were two of four Eton masters who answered a War Office call for men / speaking French and German right at the start of the war. Both then gravitated to the / Royal Flying Corps. My father, Charles, was shot down in 1915 and was a prisoner / until the end of the war. Unlike many friends, the two men survived and came to be / close at Eton until the devastating accident in the Swiss Alps 1933 that took the life of / Eric and his companions. / These watercolours have come by descent to Francis Gladstone from his parents or / via another close friend of Charles', Harry Babington Smith, his godfather, Eton / master and housemaster. / The pictures are given to enhance the Eton College collection of Eric Powell's work. / Francis Gladstone (J.F. Gladstone) was born in Penn House where his father was/housemaster in 1941 and was at B.J.W. Hill's house 1954-59.'

Material

watercolour
paper

Person

Powell, Eric Walter, 1886 - 1933 (Artist)

Date

1931

Object history note

Provenance: Collection of Charles Gladstone (1888-1968) or Harry Babbington-Smith; by one of whom bequeathed to Francis Gladstone; by whom presented to Eton, December 2019