Traces of the Hand: Master Drawings from the Collection of Frederic and Lucy S. Herman | January 25, 2013 - May 26, 2013

Samuel Ireland
British, 1744–1800
North View of Windsor Castle as Seen from Thames Street, ca. 1794–1800
Watercolor over graphite, 18 7½8 x 25 7½16 in (47.94 x 64.61 cm) (sheet)
Inscriptions: (verso) in pencil: “North View of Windsor Castle as seen from Thames Street by Samuel Ireland” “Wmk 1794”
Watermark: Strasburg Lily with Whatman “W,” countermark “J Whatman, 1794”
Gift of The Frederick and Lucy S. Herman Foundation, 2007.15.48

Samuel Ireland’s North View of Windsor Castle as Seen from Thames Street strongly resembles his preparatory drawings for the printed illustrations in one of this prolific writer and draftsman’s travel books. This watercolor, however, was never finished, and it corresponds to no published illustration. In it, the artist focuses on the pastel facades of the eerily empty buildings and streets of Windsor rather than on the landmark castle, which is obscured in haze on the faraway hill. Ireland’s single-point perspective, as painted from Windsor Bridge, has the lines of his buildings converging into thin, transparent pencil sketches in the distance.

Ireland had earlier made his public debut with his successful volume A Picturesque View through Holland, Brabant and Part of France, published in 1789 and illustrated with aquatints after his watercolor designs.¹ He promptly capitalized on this by producing Picturesque Views on the River Thames in 1792, followed by the same title for the rivers Medway, Avon, and Wye, and posthumously, the Severn in 1824.² Touring the English waterways had become popular among the gentry. Transportation in the country had greatly improved, and the upheavals of the French Revolution made continental travel less appealing.³

The subject of this drawing is closely related to Ireland’s Picturesque Views on the River Thames, published in 1792, but the Whatman watermark dated 1794 precludes its having been made in preparation for that edition.⁴ While it may have been begun as a preparatory work for the second edition of 1799, Ireland abandoned the drawing despite its relatively advanced state of completion. Missing from it are the small figures in leisurely outdoor activities seen in many of the artist’s finished illustrations for his travel guides. The wide barren street, bathed in warm light, seemingly awaits further strokes of his brush.

Interestingly, Samuel Ireland was deeply implicated in a famous Shakespeare forgery scandal, ostensibly contrived by his son William Henry Ireland. Samuel, however, had a technical knowledge of printing beyond that of his son, and while only William was convicted and Samuel wrote his own widely published vindication concerning his own part in the scheme, his reputation, already questionable, was ruined.⁵

Katelyn Hobbs
Lindsey Jones
Mary Haviland

---

¹Samuel Ireland, A Picturesque Tour Through Holland, Brabant, and Part of France, Made in the Autumn of 1789, 2 Vols., London, 1790.
²Paul Baines, “Samuel Ireland,” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004; [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14449, accessed 7 June 2012]
³Michael Clarke, The Tempting Prospect: A Social History of English Watercolor, London, 1981, 32
⁴Samuel Ireland, Picturesque Views on the River Thames, from Its Source in Glocestershire to the Nore, 2 vols., London, 1792; 2d edition, London, 1799.
⁵John Maier, The Fourth Forger: William Ireland and the Shakespeare Papers New York, 1939; Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery, New York, 1965; Jeffrey Kahan, Reforging Shakespeare: The Story of a Theatrical Scandal, Bethlehem, PA, 1998).

---

Bibliography
Balston, Thomas. James Whatman, Father and Son. London: Metheun & Company, Ltd.,1957.

Clarke, Michael. The Tempting Prospect: A Social History of English Watercolors. London: British Museum Publications, 1981.

Donald Heald Original Antique Books, Prints, and Maps. www.donaldheald.com

Grant, Colonel Maurice Harold. A Dictionary of British Landscape Painters from the 16th Century to the Early 20th Century. Leigh-on-Sea, England: F. Lewis Publishers, Ltd., 1976.

Grebanier, Bernard. The Great Shakespeare Forgery. New York: W.W. Norton, 1965.

Hargraves, Matthew. Great British Watercolors, from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Ireland, Samuel. Picturesque Tour Through Holland, Brabant and Part of France. London: T. & J. Egerton, 1790.
_______. Picturesque Views on the River Medway. London: T. & J. Egerton, 1793.
_______. Picturesque Views on the River Thames. London: T. & J. Egerton, 1792, 1799, and 1802.
_______. Picturesque Views on the Upper, or Warwickshire Avon. London: T. & J. Egerton, 1795.
_______. Picturesque Views, with an Historical Account of the Inns of Court, in London and Westminster. London: T. & J. Egerton, 1800.

Irwin, David. “Review of Observations on the River Wye.” The Modern Language Review, v. 71:1 (January 1976), 143–144.

Kahan, Jeffrey. Reforging Shakespeare: The Story of a Theatrical Scandal. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: Lehigh University Press, 1998.

Mackenzie, Ian. British Prints, Dictionary and Price Guide. Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1987.

Maier, John. The Fourth Forger: William Ireland and the Shakespeare Papers. New York: MacMillan, 1939.

Mallalieu, Huon L. The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920. Vol. 1. Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2002.

Murray, Edward Croft Murray. “Sketch-Books of Samuel Ireland.” British Museum Quarterly. v.11:3 (June 1937), 135–139.

Reynolds, Graham. English Watercolors: An Introduction. London: The Herbert Press, 1988.

Roberts, Jane. Views of Windsor. London: Merrell Holberton, 1995.

Robertson, Bruce. The Art of Paul Sandby. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 1985.

Royal Windsor Website. Windsor Then and Now. www.thames.web.co.uk/windsor

Yale Center for British Art. Paul Mellon’s Legacy: A Passion for British Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

• Cityscape
• Drawing
• Painting
• Watercolor
• Europe
• Herman Collection
• British Art
• Graphite

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• From Classic to Romantic: British Art in an Age of Transition The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia , 10/29/2010 - 1/30/2011
• Traces of the Hand: Master Drawings from the Collection of Frederick and Lucy S. Herman The University of Virginia, McIntire Department of Art , 1/25/2013 - 5/26/2013

This object is a member of the following portfolios: