WILLIAM DAY (BRITISH 1764-1807), VIEW OF A VALLEY, WITH TWO FIGURES

WILLIAM DAY (BRITISH 1764-1807) VIEW OF A VALLEY, WITH TWO FIGURES, ONE POSSIBLY SKETCHING Pencil, pen and grey ink and grey wash 19.7 x 28.9cm (7¾ x 11¼in.) Provenance: Sale, Christie's, London, Old Masters, Painting, Sculpture, Drawings and Watercolours, II, 8 December 2023, lot 196 The collection of Russell Worby William Day was an accomplished gentleman artist, see Iolo Williams in his Early English Watercolours, 1952. Judy Egerton in her article in The Connoisseur, 1970, pp. 176-185 states that Day’s interests were Geology, Minerology and Painting – in that order. He also ‘formed one of the earliest private collections of minerals in England; and always took on his sketching tours a bag for specimens as well as a box of watercolours’. Day was in fact an honorary exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1782 to 1801 and a close associate of the Swiss artist John Webber, and his watercolours are stylistically similar with a light coloured palette. Day seems to have shared Webber’s interest in rocks and mountains and accompanied Webber on a visit to the Wye Valley in 1788 and also to Derbyshire in 1789. The present watercolour although undated, may well be from Day’s last tour – an 1805 trip around Sussex, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, during which he predominantly made smaller drawings in pen or pencil, with sepia and grey washes. Condition Report Disclaimer, WILLIAM DAY (BRITISH 1764-1807), VIEW OF A VALLEY, WITH TWO FIGURES, ONE POSSIBLY SKETCHING, WILLIAM DAY (BRITISH 1764-1807) VIEW OF A VALLEY, WITH TWO FIGURES, ONE POSSIBLY SKETCHING Pencil, pen and grey ink and grey wash 19.7 x 28.9cm (7¾ x 11¼in.) Provenance: Sale, Christie's, London, Old Masters, Painting, Sculpture, Drawings and Watercolours, II, 8 December 2023, lot 196 The collection of Russell Worby William Day was an accomplished gentleman artist, see Iolo Williams in his Early English Watercolours, 1952. Judy Egerton in her article in The Connoisseur, 1970, pp. 176-185 states that Day’s interests were Geology, Minerology and Painting – in that order. He also ‘formed one of the earliest private collections of minerals in England; and always took on his sketching tours a bag for specimens as well as a box of watercolours’. Day was in fact an honorary exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1782 to 1801 and a close associate of the Swiss artist John Webber, and his watercolours are stylistically similar with a light coloured palette. Day seems to have shared Webber’s interest in rocks and mountains and accompanied Webber on a visit to the Wye Valley in 1788 and also to Derbyshire in 1789. The present watercolour although undated, may well be from Day’s last tour – an 1805 trip around Sussex, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, during which he predominantly made smaller drawings in pen or pencil, with sepia and grey washes. Provenance:, Old Masters, Painting, Sculpture, Drawings and Watercolours, II, Early English Watercolours, The Connoisseur, Condition Report Disclaimer

Estimate:£1,000

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