Anon. Gothic Building in Parkland
An original mid-19th-century watercolour painting Gothic Building in Parkland.
This fine architectural watercolour is not only atmospheric and impressive in its detail, but also extremely intriguing: we have been unable to identify the building—is it now destroyed, was it never built, or is it just an imagined confection?
The inclusion of figures recalls the work of the influential English watercolourist and engraver Joseph Nash (1809–1878), whose four-volume 'Mansions of England in the Olden Time' (1839-49) was widely circulated and credited with causing an increasing number of people to visit historical buildings. Nash brought his architectural subjects to life by the inclusion of groups of people. The figures depicted here date the subject to c.1850, and include scholars in academic dress, deliberately indicating—it would seem fair to conclude—that the building is in some way connected university or academic life. The building facade itself is in the Perpendicular Gothic style, and the building is surrounded by grounds or parkland.
There is fine underdrawing in pencil beneath the watercolour, but the work does not have the technicality of an actual architectural design; it could rather be a design for reproduction in print—there were numerous illustrated volumes of British topography, such as those of printseller Rudolph Ackermann, produced at that time.
Dimensions: Height: 21.8cm (8.58") Width: 35.6cm (14.02")
Presented: Unframed.
Medium: Watercolour
Age: Mid-19th-century
Signed: No.
Inscribed: Inscribed lower centre.
Dated: --
Condition: Some age toning across the sheet, and foxing in places. There is a series of brown liquid stains to the verso, which only faintly show through to the front. There is minor creasing to the towards left edge and across the upper left corner, and the corners of the sheet are worn, with losses to the lower corners, as shown. There four tiny holes in the paper to the right of the figures at the lower left.
Stock number: JM-137
