John Dugmore of Swaffham Bonivard's Prison Interior, Chillon Castle, Lake Geneva

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting, John Dugmore of Swaffham, Bonivard's Prison Interior, Chillon Castle, Lake Geneva.

An outstanding and rare grisaille watercolour by British draughtsman and grand-tourist John Dugmore of Swaffham (1793–1871).

The painting depicts the interior dungeon at Chillon Castle on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, which served as the prison for the nobleman François Bonivard in the 16th century. Bonivard was imprisoned by the Duke of Savoy for his political activism on the side of the patriots of Geneva at the time of the Republic of Geneva. In the 19th century, the prison was cemented in the Romantic imagination through Byron's poem The Prisoner of Chillon, written in 1816 after Byron and Shelley had sailed on Lake Geneva and visited Chillon Castle. In Byron's poem the protagonist is an isolated figure who brings a strong will to bear against great suffering. He seeks solace in the beauty of nature and is a martyr of sorts to the cause of liberty.

Dugmore's dramatic rendering of the prison's stark architecture and oppressive gloom powerfully conveys the atmosphere of isolation and suffering apt to a Romantic hero.

John Dugmore of Swaffham (1793–1871) was born into Norfolk nobility in 1793. He benefited from a deep classical education and developed a sophisticated taste in the arts. On moving to London to seek his fame and fortune at the Royal Court, he met the man who was to become his patron, William Charles Keppel (1772–1849), 4th Earl of Albermarle. It is believed that Dugmore was responsible for Keppel children’s education, and he accompanied one of Keppel's son's on a Grand Tour in 1820. Over a period of twenty months, he passed from Scotland to Western Bohemia, France, Switzerland and Italy, recording the sights and views he encountered. This watercolour is very probably the product of that tour.

Dugmore's work has been praised for not only being visual witnesses of the shape of many main and minor European cities, but also for his ability in feeling and amplifying the aesthetic news which he was meeting place by place. It is thought that his drawing style varies according to the landscape, his German drawings being very linear and pure, and his French drawings are ‘touched’ by pencil and brush in a way that seems largely to anticipate the impressionist idea of the light.

In watercolour with gum arabic on cream card.

Provenance: William Drummond (Covent Garden Gallery, London).