FDA-D.1624-2020

Object number

FDA-D.1624-2020

Object type

Watercolour

Title

View of Eton College Chapel from Luxmoore's Garden

Title Type

assigned by cataloguer

Description

Painted view of Eton College Chapel with flowers and trees in the foreground

Dimensions

height (frame): 433mm
width (frame): 523mm

Inscription

Inscribed lower right: 'E.W. Powell 1912'; 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

1912

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