2nd Oct, 2024 12:00

Drawings and Watercolours from the Iolo Williams Collection

 
  Lot 53
 

53

ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE BECK (BRITISH-AMERICAN 1749-1812)

CASTLE RISING, NORFOLK
signed and inscribed, Castle Rising, Norfolk / by Mr Beck, verso
pen and brown ink and watercolour on laid paper
27 x 35cm; 10 1/2 x 13 3/4in
framed

George Beck was born in Staffordshire. His English, Welsh and Irish landscapes were often compared to those of Richard Wilson but considered less accomplished. However he was praised for the way in which he captured the light and sky. He and his wife emigrated to America in 1795 and it was here that his reputation really grew. His best-known paintings The Potomac River Breaking through the Blue Ridge and The Great Falls of the Potomac (ca.1796-1797) were subsequently purchased by George Washington in 1797 to be hung in the New Room that Washington had built at Mount Vernon following the Revolutionary War.

Sold for £900


 

CASTLE RISING, NORFOLK
signed and inscribed, Castle Rising, Norfolk / by Mr Beck, verso
pen and brown ink and watercolour on laid paper
27 x 35cm; 10 1/2 x 13 3/4in
framed

George Beck was born in Staffordshire. His English, Welsh and Irish landscapes were often compared to those of Richard Wilson but considered less accomplished. However he was praised for the way in which he captured the light and sky. He and his wife emigrated to America in 1795 and it was here that his reputation really grew. His best-known paintings The Potomac River Breaking through the Blue Ridge and The Great Falls of the Potomac (ca.1796-1797) were subsequently purchased by George Washington in 1797 to be hung in the New Room that Washington had built at Mount Vernon following the Revolutionary War.

Auction: Drawings and Watercolours from the Iolo Williams Collection, 2nd Oct, 2024

A unique auction comprising the collection of 18th and early 19th century British watercolours, once belonging to connoisseur and author Iolo Aneurin Williams (1890-1962). Williams wrote the definitive collectors's guide 'Early English Watercolours' in 1952. Having been kept safely - in storage boxes under a bed - this will be their first appearance on the market for more than 60 years and in some cases much longer. 

Iolo Williams was a museums and art critic for The Times from 1936 onwards and an avid collector.  Born in Middlesborough, he lived in Hindhead in his youth and latterly in Kew, south-west of London, and formed his collection from the 1930’s to the 1950’s when unidentified drawings could be picked up for a modest price from dealers and auctions. Through diligent research, he identified many works as being by leading exponents of the golden age of British drawings and watercolours: artists such as Thomas Girtin, Richard Wilson, William Payne, John Varley and Paul Sandby. He also discovered and put on record other artists about whom little was then known.

In 1952 he published his monumental and highly influential work Early English Water-Colours, and Some Cognate Drawings by Artists Born Not Later Than 1785' which listed and discussed works by 600 British draughtsmen. Arts writer Huon MallaIieu, in his own essential book for collectors Understanding Watercolours of 1985, describes it as “both a labour of love and scholarship undertaken by one of the most civilised and knowledgeable collectors of his day, it gradually became not only essential reading, but a collector’s item in its own right for cognoscenti” and “a joy to read”.

The auction is a rare opportunity for collectors, both seasoned and new, to enjoy the sort of experience Williams would have had of looking through folders of mixed, unframed drawings and watercolours in which hidden gems could be discovered. 

Contact Suzanne Zack for further information about this auction | suzanne.zack@olympiaauctions.com | + 44 (0) 20 7806 5541

Viewing Times:

29th Sep 2024 12:00 - 16:00 

30th Sep 2024 10:00 - 20:00 

01st Oct 2024 10:00 - 17:00 

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