Circle of François Louis Thomas Francia Barges off the Normandy Coast

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting, Circle of Thomas Louis Francia, Barges off the Normandy Coast.

This is an exceptionally beautiful marine watercolour from the circle of François Louis Thomas Francia (1772–1839) and Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828); French flags adorn the top of the masts of the fishing barges, and the rope lines are drawn with exquisite delicacy and precision. The overall composition has a captivating sense of balance and depth.

British painters and illustrators had flooded northern France after the Napoleonic Wars, painting its rivers, valleys and seacoasts. J.M.W. Turner and Richard Parkes Bonington were among those who contributed significantly to landscape's new prominence in France in the second quarter of the century. Into the later 19th century the area was popular with artists Boudin and Jongkind, who paved the way for the Impressionists.

Richard Parkes Bonington was a student of François Louis Thomas Francia in Calais. Bonington's family had moved from England in 1817, the same year that Francia returned to Calais from London. Francia taught Bonington the English watercolour technique, which he had learnt under John Varley and Thomas Girtin. Francia provided an important link between British and French watercolour painting in the early nineteenth century. Bonington's coast scenes bear much resemblance to the later works of Francia.

In watercolour with brown ink and scratching out to the water.