drawing

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Object Type
Museum number: 1906,0509.1.40
Description: Horn plantain; whole banana and a top half sliced through Watercolour over graphite
Producer name
School/style: British; American
Production date: 1585-1593
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 294 millimetres; Width: 177 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: For an introduction to this group of drawings by John White and a list of abbreviations used in the Literature at the end, see curatorial comment for 1906,0509.1.1, the title page inscription to the album. The following text is taken from K. Sloan, 'A New World: England's First View of America' (London, BM Publications, 2006), no.40, pp.176-7: [NB. If you use any of the text or information below, please acknowledge the source] 'Musa paradisiaca' Linn. (see also 1906,0509.1.39) This drawing is probably life-size but the colour has been altered by the water damage to the sheet which caused the sizing of the paper to pool and to cast the sheet with an overall light brown tone. The version in the Sloane volume is a deeper yellow and more strongly shaded. Although at first it appears a much better and more three-dimensional drawing, in fact the artist has not understood the foreshortening of the cut fruit and has drawn a full circle to show the inside rather than White’s ellipse. There is another version in the Sloane album (SL,5270.25) There is an 18th-century version commissioned by Sloane in the British Library Add MS 5289,160 Lit.: LB 1(41); Quinn, p. 408; ECM 13; PH&DBQ 13(a); PH 13
Bibliographic references: Sloan 2007 / A New World. England's first view of America (40); Croft-Murray 1960 / Catalogue of British Drawings in the British Museum, XVI and XVII centuries (13); Binyon 1898-1907 / Catalogue of drawings by British artists, and artists of foreign origin working in Great Britain (1(41)); Hulton & Quinn 1964 / The American Drawings of John White 1577-1590, with drawings of European and Oriental subjects (13(a)); Bescoby et al 2007 / New visions of a new world: the conservation and analysis of the John White watercolours (p.13, fig.6); Ambers et al 2012 / Hidden history?: examination of two patches on John White's map of 'Virginia' (p.47)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: 1958 Apr, BM, Eight centuries of landscape ... water-colours, case 41 2007 Mar-Jun, BM, 'A New World:...', no.40 2007/8 Oct-Jan, Raleigh, North Carolina Mus of History, 'A New World:...' 2008 Mar-Jun, New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, 'A New World:...' 2008 Jul-Oct, Williamsburg, Jamestown Settlement, 'A New World:...'
Subjects
Acquisition name
Previous owner: Previous owner/ex-collection: Thomas Payne; Previous owner/ex-collection: James Caulfield, 1st Earl of Charlemont; Previous owner/ex-collection: James Molyneux Caulfield, 3rd Earl of Charlemont
Acquisition date: 1866
Acquisition notes: The provenance given above refers to the moment when the album of drawings connected with John White was purchased by the Department of Manuscripts in what is now the British Library. The album was transferred to the Department of Prints and Drawings in 1906, where it was assigned new register numbers.
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1906,0509.1.40

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