An original c.1820s watercolour painting, William George Jennings, Italianate Landscape with Figures.

A lively Italianate view by William George Jennings (1763–1854). Jennings's early topographical work was in the manner of Richard Wilson and Joseph Farington, but from around 1826 Jennings became a friend and patron of John Constable, and the two artists shared a house. Constable's profound influence on Jennings can be seen in this engaging landscape sketch.

Here Jennings employs a mixture of media—watercolour, gouache and chalk on a rough textured laid paper—resulting in an expressive effect emulating Constable's lively mark-making. The varied media and marks represent the textures found in nature and contribute to the painting's mood; the hazy soft-focus treatment of the distant harbour to the left creates a sense of the sultry Italian heat.

The skies too evoke Constable's treatment of clouds—Constable intensively studied the atmospheric effects of clouds during his 'skying' period 1821 to 1822, when he produced dozens of watercolour, crayon and oil studies of the clouds over Hampstead Heath. Jennings shared Constable's attachment to the landscape of Hampstead Heath, and Hampstead is the subject of much of Jenning's work. The present Italianate subject is more unusual for Jennings, although he is recorded as having exhibited an Italian subject in 1830, and the feel the present watercolour is not dissimilar to his Hampstead works.

Although Old Jennings—as Constable referred to him—was a gentleman amateur, he nevertheless was instrumental in bolstering the younger artist's confidence and in supporting him with his patronage. In the 1830s Jennings bought two paintings from Constable, a ‘Yarmouth Jetty’ and ‘Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow’, the latter of which is now in the Tate. For a Hampstead subject by Jennings see also Tate, T03349, Heath Scene with a Pond c.1831.

William George Jennings exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1797 and 1806 and at the Society of British Artists in 1830.

Provenance: From the Collection of Dr E.M. Brett of Hampstead. Abbott & Holder, 30 Museum Street, WC1A 1LH.

In watercolour with gouache and chalk. On rough textured laid paper.