drawing
- Museum number
- 1875,0710.60
- Description
-
View of Bath; from the E, looking over the Avon from Bathwick Meadows, with Bowling Green to left, Grand Parade, Pierpoint St and Duke St, St James's church tower, to right the Orange Grove and E end of Abbey, with hills beyond
Bodycolour
- Production date
- 1716-1770
- Dimensions
-
Height: 208 millimetres
-
Width: 360 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Binyon catalogues the drawing as anonymous but John Harris, who published a book on Robins, 'Gardens of Delight: The Art of Thomas Robins' in 1978 (two years after there was an exhibition of his work at the RIBA and at the Holburne Menstrie Museum in Bath), firmly attributes this work to Robins. The British Museum also has a fan painted by him and two other fan designs were offered for sale at Sotheby's in June 2005 but withdrawn before the sale. Two watercolours of the grounds of Honington Hall, Warwickshire, one showing the ornamental water designed by Sanderson Miller, were at Sotheby's 7 June 2006 (lot 337). A view of Cheltenham from the West, s&d 1748 was with Christies 8 December 2010 (ex Northwick collection) and it and other views of Cheltenham were included in Harris, p. 35.
Harris stated that Robins (also known as Thomas Robins the Elder, 1716-1770) was 'an artist who painted English houses and gardens when they were most enchanting; whose eye captured the rococo garden at its perfection and when it was most whimsical; whose paintings are almost sensual in the sheer delight they give...' (Harris, 1978, p. 1). For further information please see the Croft-Murray typescript files in the Department and a new 'Introduction to his Life and Work' by Cathryn Spence and Daniel Brown, Bath, 2006. They note that Robins advertised in the Bath Journal on 30 October 1752 that he was a 'Painter' who taught at Mr Sperin's Toy-Shop in the Grove, Bath, gentlemen and ladies at reasonable rates 'The Art of Drawing and Painting in Watercolours: Where his Drawings and Paintings may be seen. Likewise Perspects and Prospective Views of Gentlemens Seats in the correctest Manner.' (p. 5). He lived in Charlton Kings, but taught at Bath during the season, and travelled to work for commissions elsewhere, as many drawing masters did. His friendship with Henry Seymer of Dorset seems to have helped him in his later concentration on botanical paintings. His son continued his business after his death. See this later publication by Spence and Brown for an up to date bibliography.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1978 Jul-Sep, Holburne of Menstrie Museum, Bath, 'Thomas Robins', no. 1
- Acquisition date
- 1875
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1875,0710.60
