John Varley, OWS, British 1778-1842- Tarbert Castle, Dumbarton; pencil and...

John Varley, OWS,
British 1778-1842-

Tarbert Castle, Dumbarton;

pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of white on paper, 17.2 x 24.2 cm.

Provenance:
with Bernard Squire, London.
Private Collection, UK.

Note:
Tarbert Castle is a ruined 13th-century royal castle, which was extended in the 14th century, by the addition of an outer bailey with towers. In the late 15th or early 16th century, a four-storey tower house with a corbelled-out parapet was built. The tower was more or less intact until the middle of the 19th century when half of it collapsed.

Varley was a prolific watercolourist and a close friend of William Blake (1757-1827). He was an influential figure in the development of watercolour painting in Britain, as one of the founders of the 'Old Watercolour Society' in 1805, and also instructed a number of significant watercolourists in the generation to follow, including John Linnell (1792-1882), David Cox (1783-1859), Copley Fielding (1787-1855), and William Turner of Oxford (1789-1862).