- Museum number
- 1902,0514.110
- Description
-
Rokeby on the Greta, Yorkshire; river bank to right and steep rocky cliffs to left in distance, with trees growing on rock face and summit
Graphite with red chalk
- Production date
- 1805-1811
- Dimensions
-
Height: 203 millimetres
-
Width: 136 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This drawing is identical in size with a drawing of Duncombe Park used as the model for one of Cotman’s Miscellaneous Etchings (1902,0514.256). The etchings were issued to subscribers in 1810 and published in 1811 as a set of 26 plates including a title-page dedication to Sir Henry Englefield and a list of the subjects. Cotman presumably intended this drawing of Rokeby as part of the series.
The landscape of the River Greta, running along the boundary of the park at Rokeby, with its steep, wooded banks, was especially dear to Cotman; it figured in numerous watercolour sketches and studies, and in finished works shown at the Royal Academy in 1806 and in Norwich in 1808. The print would have been a further attempt to bring its particular qualities before the public, but Cotman may well have been discouraged by the comments of the bookseller in York who was distributing the early numbers to clients in Yorkshire. Francis Cholmeley reported to the artist that ‘his subscribers did not like the view in Duncombe Park, because it might have been anywhere. Two-thirds of mankind, you know, mind more what is represented than how it is done’ (S.D.Kitson, 'The Life of John Sell Cotman', 1937, p. 143, from ms among Reeve papers in the BM). Despite the fact that the Greta view depicts the area’s very distinctive topography, it lacks any architectural feature, such as forms the focus of the majority of the etchings, and which was evidently more desirable to the public.
Cotman initially proposed adding another dozen plates to the 24 he had already etched, but changed his mind. When he decided to call a halt to the Miscellaneous Etchings and embark on another publication concentrating on the architecture of Norfolk, the Rokeby plate was apparently one of the casualties. The incident reveals how one stray comment, to such an acutely sensitive personality as Cotman’s, could have a decisive effect on his future course. He was eager for public approbation, but also, with the success of his first publication, realised that printmaking, given the right choice of subjects, might prove a means to establish the financial security he also craved.
Reproduced in 'Cotman' by L. Binyon, Studio Special Number, Summer 1903, C41
For related watercolours and comment on Cotman's drawings on the Greta, see 1902,0514.17
David Hill comments that this drawing is not typical of Cotman's work in Yorkshire and County Durham in 1805 because it has been drawn initially in pencil and then re-worked in red conté crayon, which suggests it may have been made for study purposes. Hill also queries whether it represents the Greta, which was a narrower and faster-flowing river, but might instead be the Tees (David Hill, ‘Cotman in the North’, 2005, p. 128).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1888 Nov, Burlington Fine Arts Club, no.120
1984 May-Oct, Grasmere, Dove Cottage, 'Coleridge-Poet and Explorer', (ex cat.)
2005 Mar-Jul, Norwich, Castle Museum & Art Gallery, 'John Sell Cotman: The Reeve Collection'
2005 May-Jul, Durham Bowes Museum, 'Sense and Sensibility: Cotman Watercolours in Durham and Yorkshire'
2005 Aug-Oct, Leeds, Harewood House, 'Sense and Sensibility: Cotman Watercolours in Durham and Yorkshire'
- Acquisition date
- 1902
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1902,0514.110