drawing
- Museum number
- 2000,0520.4
- Description
-
November evening in a Welsh wood; bare trees in foreground, small rocks covered with moss, dead autumn leaves on woodland floor, pink early evening sky in distance
Watercolour with scratching out
- Production date
- 1885-1895 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 256 millimetres
-
Width: 207 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Born in Birmingham, Watts was deeply influenced by the writings of Ruskin and the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. His fidelity to nature and attempts to revive a sense of realism in landscape painting bear testimony to his adherence to Ruskinian principles. He was fascinated by the play of light and concentrated on depicting wooded landscapes at varying times of the year and times of the day. Watts exhibited in both oils and watercolour, but the latter was his preferred medium. His subject matter is generally concentrated on North Wales, Liverpool and Lancashire.
Nineteen other watercolours by Watts were included in the Fuller sale at Christies (7 April 2000) where this one was purchased.
The following label was written by Kim Sloan for Places of the Mind, 2017:
Like his contemporary William Fraser Garden [see for example 2006,0331.4], the northern artist James Thomas Watts specialised in scenes that made a virtue of his ability to capture the essence of trees and woodlands in the varying seasons. Between the late 1870s and 1905, he confined himself nearly entirely to woodland scenes like this, becoming an absolute master of them. His style did not vary greatly over the years, making them difficult to date precisely.
See also, K. Sloan, 'The 'tormentingly elusive' art of drawing landscape', in K. Sloan (ed.), Places of the Mind: British watercolour landscapes 1850-1950, (London, 2017), pp. 24-67.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2001 May-Sep BM, P&D, 'Paper Assets' (no cat.)
2017 23 Feb-27 Aug, London, BM, G90, Places of the Mind: British Landscape watercolours 1850-1950
- Acquisition date
- 2000
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2000,0520.4
