William Callow RWS Rotterdam Canal

An original mid-19th-century watercolour painting – William Callow RWS, Rotterdam Canal.

A wonderful picturesque view at Rotterdam in Holland by William Callow RWS (1812–1908). The picture captures the city's medieval architecture—its half-timbered buildings and arched canal bridges—prior to the destruction of much of Rotterdam's historic centre during World War II.

William Callow's early connection with the Fielding family of artists (having worked under the engraver Theodore Fielding aged just eleven years old) led him to find work in 1829 in Paris with the publisher J.F. d’Ostervald, where he initially lived and worked with Newton Fielding. From 1831 he worked in the studio of Thomas Shotter Boys; Boys had in his turn studied with Richard Parkes Bonington, and the melting pot of all these older watercolourists had a profound influence on Callow's lifelong style.

In 1834 Callow took over the studio of Boys and developed a highly profitable practice as a drawing master to members of the French nobility, including teaching the children of King Louis-Philippe. Callow had easy access to the wider Continent, and travelled extensively, predominantly on foot, visiting France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He first visited Holland in 1845, noting in his autobiography that he arrived by steamer at Rotterdam. The picturesque Dutch city would thereafter feature repeatedly in his work, the subject of twelve paintings exhibited at the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours between 1846 and 1908, and one exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1856.

Callow’s watercolours satisfied the growing demand for travel imagery depicting scenic views and picturesque corners of European cities, before availability of the printed postcard. He favoured picturesque architecture but, like Thomas Shotter Boys, attended to pictorial qualities of light and shade to create a pleasing image, rather than being a slave to strict topographical exactness.

In watercolour with touches of white and blue bodycolour.

The painting is indistinctly intialled 'WC' at the lower left. Additionally, the painting is accompanied by a historical mount identifying the artist name and location.