Old Masters
The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours
272 pages, hardback, 280 x 210 mm, 111 colour illustrations
PRICE: £30.00
ISBN: 978 1 870787 96 3
Essays by Michael Broughton, John Murdoch, Greg Smith, Robert Woof
Catalogue by Michael Broughton, William Clark, Joanne Selbourne
The Spooner collection of British watercolours is one of the finest of its kind, featuring all the leading artists of the period 1750–1850. Among the fine sheets included are watercolours of the Lake District by John White Abbott, and rural scenes by several artists – Gainsborough, Turner, Cozens, Rowlandson, Francis Towne, Samuel Palmer. Architecture dominates the setting in works by Girtin, Cotman and Sandby. The essays accompanying the catalogue discuss outdoor painting and the role of memory in watercolour painting, the connoisseurship of and attitudes towards watercolours; and give a brief biography of William Wycliffe Spooner himself.
Michael Broughton is Chairman of the W.W. Spooner Charitable Trust. William Clarke is Head of Conservation, Joanna Selbourne is Curator of Prints and John Murdoch is former Director at the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery.
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