John Le Capelain Boats on the Water, Jersey

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting, John Le Capelain, Boats on the Water, Jersey.

A beautiful watercolour by the distinguished Jersey artist John Le Capelain (1812–1848). Le Capelain is especially known for his atmospheric watercolours of Jersey and a watercolour technique—giving his paintings a particularly misty and foggy effect—that captured the essence of the island's landscape.

Le Capelain is often labelled the 'Jersey Turner' due his distinctive treatment of atmosphere and light. In 1846 he wrote that 'The effect of scenery is so much influenced by the atmosphere' and that 'Surrounded by the sea, Jersey is almost every night shrouded in a mist which the rising sun in dissolving tinges with prismatic colours'. His watercolours capture the island's shifting light and evoke a romanticism that conveys the special status of the island at the crossroads of France and England.

Le Capelain exhibited in London alongside leading watercolour artists including J.M.W. Turner, John Constable and William Callow. His works can be found in the collections of Tate, The Courtauld and the Royal Collection in London, as well as in a number of public collections in Jersey.

John Le Capelain (1812–1848) was born in London, the son of Jerseyman Samuel Le Capelain (1785–1850) who was a printer and lithographer. In 1813 the family moved back to Jersey; John (or Jean as he was known in Jersey) never married and lived with his parents in St Helier for much of his life.

Le Capelain showed artistic talent from an early age although he received no formal training. At the age of seventeen his watercolour of Mont Orgueil was published in Moss's Views of the Channel Islands of 1829. He initially followed his father's trade in lithography but abandoned it later in life. The lack of local patronage for the arts in Jersey forced Le Capelain to return to London in 1832 where he practised as watercolour painter for a time. He also travelled in England, France and Scotland, particularly on the Isle of Skye.

After Queen Victoria's visit to Jersey in 1846, a volume of drawings by Le Capelain of scenery of the island was presented to her as an official souvenir by the States of Jersey. This led to his receiving a commission from the Queen to paint pictures of the Isle of Wight. While engaged on these he developed tuberculosis, of which he died in Jersey in 1848 aged just thirty-six.

By the time of his death Le Capelain's work was widely appreciated in Jersey and it was said that his watercolours could be found 'in almost every gentlemen's house in Jersey'.