FDA-D.501-2010
Parts
Object number
FDA-D.501-2010
Object type
Identification
Title
A Landscape with Italianate Buildings
An Italian landscape with a peasant by a villa
Pilkington
An Italian landscape with a peasant by a villa
Pilkington
Title Type
Common name
Previous title
collection
Previous title
collection
Comments
William Taverner was born on 25 November 1700 and baptized the same day at St Martin's Ludgate. He was to spend his life in and around London. His father was an ecclesiastical lawyer and his grandfather, Jeremiah Taverner, a portrait painter. Professionally William followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a public notary in 1737 and proctor of the court of arches (the Archbishop of Canterbury's court of appeal) in 1739. At the same time he developed a significant career as an amateur painter. The printmaker and antiquary George Vertue noted as early as 1733 that Taverner possessed 'a wonderfull genius to drawing of Landskap in an excellent manner adornd with figures in a stile above the common & paints in oil in a very commendable & masterly manner'.
British landscape artists of Taverner's generation struggled to make a living and generally earned their keep by painting views of country houses and estates, by teaching, making prints, or by painting theatre sets. Being free to draw and paint as he pleased, Taverner was able to develop an imaginative style of landscape based on the models of Gaspard Dughet, Poussin and Claude. He was also a great admirer of Rubens and possessed a large number of prints after that artist. His use of a restricted palette and broadly-applied washes was influenced by Peter Tillemans. Taverner's watercolours (including the Eton example) often feature buildings, but these are included for compositional effect and bear no relationshop to houses he would have seen in the London area. Similar Italianate buildings appear in Gainsborough's drawings: these too are based on the examples of Dughet and Poussin. Taverner and the slightly younger Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelain (1710-1758), who also drew idealised landscape in a Continental manner, had an effect, not just on Gainsborough, but on other English artists. Paul Sandby, for example, owned several drawings by Taverner. As a man, Taverner was of a retiring nature and did not send his work to the public exhibitions of the Society of Artists, Free Society and Royal Academy,all of which were establised within his lifetime, and which accepted the work of amateurs as well as professionals. Indeed , he 'had much quaking abt. shewing his pictures', which, in a contrary way, 'raised their reputation'.
This drawing was formerly in the collection fo the actor and writer Gilbert Davis (1800-1983) who owned three thousand drawings and watercolours by English artists and artists who visited England, including over three hundredy by Rowlandson.
Taverner occupies an important position in the development of English watercolour painting, as one of the first artists to work freely and directly in colour, rather than using flat washes to tint what was esentially a line drawing. Employed as a lawyer at the ecclesiastical Court of Arches, based in Bow Church, London, Taverner was, by today's reckoning, an amateur, but his devotion to his art won him many admirers among the ranks of the profesionals. The engraver George Vertue noted in 1733 that Taverner 'has a wonderful genius to drawing of Landskap in an excellent manner'; later in the century Paul Sandby acquired over twenty works by Taverner, figure drawings as well as landscapes.
Like Sandby, Taverner appears to have made no hard and fast demarcations between types of subject and also the materials he used. There are naturalistic vistas of named locations around London and more confined studies of patches of woodland alongside invented compositions incorporating Italianate buildings and figures he must have culled from prints. His free use of opaque bodycolour for both types of work gives his painting a tonal richness and marks himout as an inventive and individual artist, even if, with the modesty befitting an amateur. he 'had much quaking abt shewing his pictures'.
British landscape artists of Taverner's generation struggled to make a living and generally earned their keep by painting views of country houses and estates, by teaching, making prints, or by painting theatre sets. Being free to draw and paint as he pleased, Taverner was able to develop an imaginative style of landscape based on the models of Gaspard Dughet, Poussin and Claude. He was also a great admirer of Rubens and possessed a large number of prints after that artist. His use of a restricted palette and broadly-applied washes was influenced by Peter Tillemans. Taverner's watercolours (including the Eton example) often feature buildings, but these are included for compositional effect and bear no relationshop to houses he would have seen in the London area. Similar Italianate buildings appear in Gainsborough's drawings: these too are based on the examples of Dughet and Poussin. Taverner and the slightly younger Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelain (1710-1758), who also drew idealised landscape in a Continental manner, had an effect, not just on Gainsborough, but on other English artists. Paul Sandby, for example, owned several drawings by Taverner. As a man, Taverner was of a retiring nature and did not send his work to the public exhibitions of the Society of Artists, Free Society and Royal Academy,all of which were establised within his lifetime, and which accepted the work of amateurs as well as professionals. Indeed , he 'had much quaking abt. shewing his pictures', which, in a contrary way, 'raised their reputation'.
This drawing was formerly in the collection fo the actor and writer Gilbert Davis (1800-1983) who owned three thousand drawings and watercolours by English artists and artists who visited England, including over three hundredy by Rowlandson.
Taverner occupies an important position in the development of English watercolour painting, as one of the first artists to work freely and directly in colour, rather than using flat washes to tint what was esentially a line drawing. Employed as a lawyer at the ecclesiastical Court of Arches, based in Bow Church, London, Taverner was, by today's reckoning, an amateur, but his devotion to his art won him many admirers among the ranks of the profesionals. The engraver George Vertue noted in 1733 that Taverner 'has a wonderful genius to drawing of Landskap in an excellent manner'; later in the century Paul Sandby acquired over twenty works by Taverner, figure drawings as well as landscapes.
Like Sandby, Taverner appears to have made no hard and fast demarcations between types of subject and also the materials he used. There are naturalistic vistas of named locations around London and more confined studies of patches of woodland alongside invented compositions incorporating Italianate buildings and figures he must have culled from prints. His free use of opaque bodycolour for both types of work gives his painting a tonal richness and marks himout as an inventive and individual artist, even if, with the modesty befitting an amateur. he 'had much quaking abt shewing his pictures'.
Other number
Pi 188
Description
Dimensions
height (actual size): 161mm
width (actual size): 417mm
width (actual size): 417mm
Materials & techniques note
Watercolour heightened with white bodycolour, on the artist's original mount
Production
Person
Taverner, William, 1700 - 1772 (Artist)
History and association
Object history note
Provenance: Collection of Alan Pilkington; by whom presented/bequeathed to Eton College
Exhibited: 'A Genius for Watercolour', Christie’s, London, 6 to 24 January 2003, catalogue number 18
Exhibited: 'A Genius for Watercolour', Christie’s, London, 6 to 24 January 2003, catalogue number 18
Previous ownership
Davis, Gilbert, 1899 - 1983: Bears his collector's mark
(L.757a)
Pilkington, Alan, 1879 - 1973: Bequeathed to Eton 1973
Pilkington, Alan, 1879 - 1973: Bequeathed to Eton 1973
References
• Ryan, H., Hidden Treasures, W.S. Fine Art exhibition catalogue, 2010 (No. 2, p. 14-15)
• Wilcox, T., A Genius for Watercolour; Watercolours from the Eton College Collection, Christie's exhibition catalogue, London, 2003 (No. 18, p. 26-27)
• Herrmann, L., A loan exhibition of English drawings and watercolours in memory of the late D.C.T. Baskett, 30th July to 23 August 1963, P&D Colnaghi & Co, London, 1963 (no. 5)
• Pilkington, A., Loan exhibition of early English watercolours, drawings by Old Masters, etchings & engravings from the collection of Alan D. Pilkington: in aid of the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, Colnaghi & Co, London, 1958 (no. 57)
• Wilcox, T., A Genius for Watercolour; Watercolours from the Eton College Collection, Christie's exhibition catalogue, London, 2003 (No. 18, p. 26-27)
• Herrmann, L., A loan exhibition of English drawings and watercolours in memory of the late D.C.T. Baskett, 30th July to 23 August 1963, P&D Colnaghi & Co, London, 1963 (no. 5)
• Pilkington, A., Loan exhibition of early English watercolours, drawings by Old Masters, etchings & engravings from the collection of Alan D. Pilkington: in aid of the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, Colnaghi & Co, London, 1958 (no. 57)