Heriot original watercolor of a Diagrams Crab
HERIOT, George (SCOTTISH CANADIAN, 1759–1839).
Diagrams Crab (West Indies).
Watercolor on paper.
Inscribed lower left: "Diagrams Crab".
c. 1777-1814.
6 3/4" x 5 1/4" sheet.
"During my residences in the tropical Climates, I employed myself chiefly in the study of Natural History, for which the West India Islands this is a large field. I travelled on this pursuit from one island to another, making curious drawings from Nature, and taking some views of those different places. I likewise wrote [of] the present state of those Islands, particularly where the seat of the war is. By this means I have had the Honour to recommend myself to the notice and regard of the Royal Society, and to procure their leave and indulgence, to inscribe to them a small Poetical work of mine, written in the West Indies. A Copy of which, I shall take the first convenient opportunity of transmitting to you. I sailed from Saint Eustatius on the third of May last, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June." [George Heriot to Sir James Grant, 1781]
A remarkable collection of original watercolors by artist George Heriot (Scottish Canadian, 1759–1839). Heriot is most widely known as a writer and illustrator of North America, primarily Canada, due to his publication Travels through the Canadas (1807), illustrated with landscape and ethnographic engravings based on his watercolor paintings. From time to time, watercolors of his excursions in Quebec or along the Hudson River will surface, but his early work, before his military draughtsmanship training, is exceedingly rare. Our collection represents the artist’s formative years, his earliest works when he experimented with picturesque and sublime aspects in a foreign land. Works include his early travel in the West Indies as well as his tours in North America.
George Heriot was born in Haddington, Scotland, and was educated at Edinburgh. After his studies, he stayed in Edinburgh (1774-77) and was befriended by Sir James Grant, who persuaded him to take up art. In 1777, he left for London but, perhaps looking for an adventure, sailed for the West Indies instead. Heriot was in the West Indies for four years from 1777-1781, making notes and sketches of the islands. On his return to London, he published A Descriptive Poem written in the West Indies (1781). Then, he enrolled as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he developed his skills as a draughtsman under the virtuoso watercolorist and drawing master Paul Sandby (1731-1809.) The anatomical correctness of many of the drawings in this collection, and careful labeling of the various species, indicate that Heriot indeed had some training in the preparation of natural history drawings and potentially some experiencing in printmaking.
Heriot left the Academy by 1783 but remained in Woolwich, employed as a civilian clerk by the Army. In 1792, he was posted to Quebec, as a clerk in the ordinance office there. In his first years, little is recorded; some surviving sketches indicate he traveled around Quebec and Montreal, and he published one drawing in the winter of 1792. In 1796, he returned to Britain, traveling along the south coast and in Wales. After preparing some paintings for exhibition at the Royal Academy, he left for Canada again.
Shortly after his return to Quebec, Heriot gained appointment as the assistant storekeeper general, perhaps through his younger brother, the journalist John Heriot. He held his two positions concurrently, drawing the salary for both, and when the commander-in-chief discovered this in 1799, he was removed from the new position. However, through his brother’s connections, Heriot had met William Pitt when in London - through Pitt’s influence was appointed the deputy postmaster general for the whole of British North America in October 1799. Heriot’s wanderlust often put him at odds with his position’s structure, and he eventually resigned in 1816. He returned to Britain, where he retired.
AUTHORSHIP: This previously undocumented collection of works by Heriot has been attributed to the artist by several means. First and foremost, the watercolor drawings were compared to a signed album of watercolors by George Heriot at the Thomas Fisher Library, University of Toronto. Our collection of images may be the initial sketches prepared on-site by Heriot, later worked into the more finished titled drawings at the Fisher Library, evidenced by repeated subjects in various poses present in both collections. The Fisher examples are tighter in execution, titled in ink script, and with black framing lines.
Second, handwriting on our collection of watercolor drawings matched that of illustrations in both the Fisher Library Heriots, sketchbooks in the New York Historical Society, writing samples from a sketchbook in the collection of the McCord Museum, Quebec, and several examples which have appeared at auction. Heriot had a nasty habit of retitling his images over time, first in pencil, then later in ink, sometimes erasing the previous title, and in other instances overwriting the original, so both are present. The method is evident in this collection as it is in the comparison groups.
PROVENANCE: Much of Heriot’s original watercolors have passed through the family collection. The earliest mention of Heriot watercolors of West Indian watercolors is the Rev. C.A. Mackonochie sale, Sotheby’s (London), 21 July 1943 (lot 3210). Rev. C.A. Mackonochie was a descendent of Reverend Alexander Heriot Mackonochie, related to the Heriot family. These works are likely part of the lot sold in 1943, perhaps along with West Indian works at the University of Toronto and elsewhere.
WEST INDIES (1777-1781): In 1777, at the age of eighteen, George Heriot left his home in Scotland for London. Given that Heriot had decided upon an art career, he was probably drawn to London because it was the hub for art students in the late 18th- century. There was a constant need for artists to illustrate this proliferation of books. So how did this budding artist wind up in the West Indies?
George Heriot likely followed in the steps of many young people who just arrived in London: he hung out at the local coffee shop or pub. In the eighteenth-century, these houses served many functions: a restaurant, a meeting place for socializing, and in some ways, makeshift employment centers. No matter the industry, particularly those engaged in trade, an employer would know they could find adventurous, able-bodied recruits who were generally hungry and needing work there. Heriot probably was in such a position. First, while he grew up in a gentry family, his father’s business had failed the year he moved to London, driving him into bankruptcy and forcing his brothers to join the navy. Thus, George would have been easily enticed by the promise to see an awe-inspiring place only known by tales from ship captains. He had no financial safety net when he arrived in London. If he did not find work immediately upon arrival, it is doubtful he would have survived there long. Second, one must remember that Heriot was perhaps familiar with the romantic travel novel and long-form poems celebrating far-flung locales that emerged during this period. As a young man with little work experience and few connections. From what we know of Heriot as a mature man, a spot on a ship to the West Indies would have presented the glittering prospect of illustrating an exotic destination.
Heriot was in the West Indies for four years from 1777-1781, making notes and sketches of the islands. On his return to London, George Heriot published A Descriptive Poem written in the West Indies (1781), which he dedicated to the Royal Society. Only one letter related to the West Indies has come to light but does provide some idea of where the artist traveled:
During my residences in the tropical Climates, I employed myself chiefly in the study of Natural History, for which the West India Islands this is a large field. I travelled on this pursuit from one island to another, making curious drawings from Nature, and taking some views of those different places. I likewise wrote [of] the present state of those Islands, particularly where the seat of the war is. By this means I have had the Honour to recommend myself to the notice and regard of the Royal Society, and to procure their leave and indulgence, to inscribe to them a small Poetical work of mine, written in the West Indies. A Copy of which, I shall take the first convenient opportunity of transmitting to you. I sailed from Saint Eustatius on the third of May last, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June. [George Heriot to Sir James Grant, 1781]
George Heriot’s muse in the tropics was Nature in its purest form. He tells us this clearly in the very first stanza of A Descriptive Poem Written In The West Indies:
Awake, long uninvok’d my youthful muse!
Assist my fancy through the various scenes,
And guide propitiously my pen unskill’d,
With thy descriptive influence, to trace
The works of Nature in a foreign clime.
Similarly, he tells us his structure was based on Edmund Waller’s long-form poem Battel of the Summer Islands (1645), “fav’rite poet, peaceful Waller.” Waller’s three canto poem painted the Bermudas as the as a bounty of the most exotic fruits and exports including, “candied plantains,” “juicy pine” an island Elysium singing the praises of the medicinal qualities “So sweet the air, so moderate the clime,/ None sickly lives or dies before his time.” Heriot’s thirty-one-page long-form poem remains consistent in his homage to Waller by describing New World exotics in a painterly fashion. However, he diverges from his predecessor using the eighteenth-century literary style of combining both the picturesque and sublime through vistas of incredible beauty coupled with terrifying visions. He does this by acknowledging, however briefly, the existence of slavery “where the’ iron rod of Slavery prevails” and the devastating effects...
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HERIOT, George (SCOTTISH CANADIAN, 1759–1839).
Diagrams Crab (West Indies).
Watercolor on paper.
Inscribed lower left: "Diagrams Crab".
c. 1777-1814.
6 3/4" x 5 1/4" sheet.
"During my residences in the tropical Climates, I employed myself chiefly in the study of Natural History, for which the West India Islands this is a large field. I travelled on this pursuit from one island to another, making curious drawings from Nature, and taking some views of those different places. I likewise wrote [of] the present state of those Islands, particularly where the seat of the war is. By this means I have had the Honour to recommend myself to the notice and regard of the Royal Society, and to procure their leave and indulgence, to inscribe to them a small Poetical work of mine, written in the West Indies. A Copy of which, I shall take the first convenient opportunity of transmitting to you. I sailed from Saint Eustatius on the third of May last, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June." [George Heriot to Sir James Grant, 1781]
A remarkable collection of original watercolors by artist George Heriot (Scottish Canadian, 1759–1839). Heriot is most widely known as a writer and illustrator of North America, primarily Canada, due to his publication Travels through the Canadas (1807), illustrated with landscape and ethnographic engravings based on his watercolor paintings. From time to time, watercolors of his excursions in Quebec or along the Hudson River will surface, but his early work, before his military draughtsmanship training, is exceedingly rare. Our collection represents the artist’s formative years, his earliest works when he experimented with picturesque and sublime aspects in a foreign land. Works include his early travel in the West Indies as well as his tours in North America.
George Heriot was born in Haddington, Scotland, and was educated at Edinburgh. After his studies, he stayed in Edinburgh (1774-77) and was befriended by Sir James Grant, who persuaded him to take up art. In 1777, he left for London but, perhaps looking for an adventure, sailed for the West Indies instead. Heriot was in the West Indies for four years from 1777-1781, making notes and sketches of the islands. On his return to London, he published A Descriptive Poem written in the West Indies (1781). Then, he enrolled as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he developed his skills as a draughtsman under the virtuoso watercolorist and drawing master Paul Sandby (1731-1809.) The anatomical correctness of many of the drawings in this collection, and careful labeling of the various species, indicate that Heriot indeed had some training in the preparation of natural history drawings and potentially some experiencing in printmaking.
Heriot left the Academy by 1783 but remained in Woolwich, employed as a civilian clerk by the Army. In 1792, he was posted to Quebec, as a clerk in the ordinance office there. In his first years, little is recorded; some surviving sketches indicate he traveled around Quebec and Montreal, and he published one drawing in the winter of 1792. In 1796, he returned to Britain, traveling along the south coast and in Wales. After preparing some paintings for exhibition at the Royal Academy, he left for Canada again.
Shortly after his return to Quebec, Heriot gained appointment as the assistant storekeeper general, perhaps through his younger brother, the journalist John Heriot. He held his two positions concurrently, drawing the salary for both, and when the commander-in-chief discovered this in 1799, he was removed from the new position. However, through his brother’s connections, Heriot had met William Pitt when in London - through Pitt’s influence was appointed the deputy postmaster general for the whole of British North America in October 1799. Heriot’s wanderlust often put him at odds with his position’s structure, and he eventually resigned in 1816. He returned to Britain, where he retired.
AUTHORSHIP: This previously undocumented collection of works by Heriot has been attributed to the artist by several means. First and foremost, the watercolor drawings were compared to a signed album of watercolors by George Heriot at the Thomas Fisher Library, University of Toronto. Our collection of images may be the initial sketches prepared on-site by Heriot, later worked into the more finished titled drawings at the Fisher Library, evidenced by repeated subjects in various poses present in both collections. The Fisher examples are tighter in execution, titled in ink script, and with black framing lines.
Second, handwriting on our collection of watercolor drawings matched that of illustrations in both the Fisher Library Heriots, sketchbooks in the New York Historical Society, writing samples from a sketchbook in the collection of the McCord Museum, Quebec, and several examples which have appeared at auction. Heriot had a nasty habit of retitling his images over time, first in pencil, then later in ink, sometimes erasing the previous title, and in other instances overwriting the original, so both are present. The method is evident in this collection as it is in the comparison groups.
PROVENANCE: Much of Heriot’s original watercolors have passed through the family collection. The earliest mention of Heriot watercolors of West Indian watercolors is the Rev. C.A. Mackonochie sale, Sotheby’s (London), 21 July 1943 (lot 3210). Rev. C.A. Mackonochie was a descendent of Reverend Alexander Heriot Mackonochie, related to the Heriot family. These works are likely part of the lot sold in 1943, perhaps along with West Indian works at the University of Toronto and elsewhere.
WEST INDIES (1777-1781): In 1777, at the age of eighteen, George Heriot left his home in Scotland for London. Given that Heriot had decided upon an art career, he was probably drawn to London because it was the hub for art students in the late 18th- century. There was a constant need for artists to illustrate this proliferation of books. So how did this budding artist wind up in the West Indies?
George Heriot likely followed in the steps of many young people who just arrived in London: he hung out at the local coffee shop or pub. In the eighteenth-century, these houses served many functions: a restaurant, a meeting place for socializing, and in some ways, makeshift employment centers. No matter the industry, particularly those engaged in trade, an employer would know they could find adventurous, able-bodied recruits who were generally hungry and needing work there. Heriot probably was in such a position. First, while he grew up in a gentry family, his father’s business had failed the year he moved to London, driving him into bankruptcy and forcing his brothers to join the navy. Thus, George would have been easily enticed by the promise to see an awe-inspiring place only known by tales from ship captains. He had no financial safety net when he arrived in London. If he did not find work immediately upon arrival, it is doubtful he would have survived there long. Second, one must remember that Heriot was perhaps familiar with the romantic travel novel and long-form poems celebrating far-flung locales that emerged during this period. As a young man with little work experience and few connections. From what we know of Heriot as a mature man, a spot on a ship to the West Indies would have presented the glittering prospect of illustrating an exotic destination.
Heriot was in the West Indies for four years from 1777-1781, making notes and sketches of the islands. On his return to London, George Heriot published A Descriptive Poem written in the West Indies (1781), which he dedicated to the Royal Society. Only one letter related to the West Indies has come to light but does provide some idea of where the artist traveled:
During my residences in the tropical Climates, I employed myself chiefly in the study of Natural History, for which the West India Islands this is a large field. I travelled on this pursuit from one island to another, making curious drawings from Nature, and taking some views of those different places. I likewise wrote [of] the present state of those Islands, particularly where the seat of the war is. By this means I have had the Honour to recommend myself to the notice and regard of the Royal Society, and to procure their leave and indulgence, to inscribe to them a small Poetical work of mine, written in the West Indies. A Copy of which, I shall take the first convenient opportunity of transmitting to you. I sailed from Saint Eustatius on the third of May last, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June. [George Heriot to Sir James Grant, 1781]
George Heriot’s muse in the tropics was Nature in its purest form. He tells us this clearly in the very first stanza of A Descriptive Poem Written In The West Indies:
Awake, long uninvok’d my youthful muse!
Assist my fancy through the various scenes,
And guide propitiously my pen unskill’d,
With thy descriptive influence, to trace
The works of Nature in a foreign clime.
Similarly, he tells us his structure was based on Edmund Waller’s long-form poem Battel of the Summer Islands (1645), “fav’rite poet, peaceful Waller.” Waller’s three canto poem painted the Bermudas as the as a bounty of the most exotic fruits and exports including, “candied plantains,” “juicy pine” an island Elysium singing the praises of the medicinal qualities “So sweet the air, so moderate the clime,/ None sickly lives or dies before his time.” Heriot’s thirty-one-page long-form poem remains consistent in his homage to Waller by describing New World exotics in a painterly fashion. However, he diverges from his predecessor using the eighteenth-century literary style of combining both the picturesque and sublime through vistas of incredible beauty coupled with terrifying visions. He does this by acknowledging, however briefly, the existence of slavery “where the’ iron rod of Slavery prevails” and the devastating effects...
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