View of Whitby

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Francis Nicholson was born in Pickering, Yorkshire, but lived in Whitby, Knaresborough and Ripon, before moving to London in around 1803. After studying under local artists in Yorkshire, he spent some 30 years painting portraits and animals, mainly in oil. However, from the mid-1780 he turned to watercolour, sending his watercolour landscapes to Royal Academy exhibitions from 1789 and supplying topographical views to ‘Copper Plate Magazine’. He experimented with different methods and processes of watercolour painting and published ‘The Practice of Drawing and Painting Landscapes from Nature in Watercolour’ (1820). Nicholson was also a popular teacher. In 1804 he became a founder-member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours.

Places

England, Whitby Abbey, Whitby, Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, River Esk (Yorkshire)

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, tree, river, hill, man, walking stick, harbour, house, church, sailboat, ship

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), ink, watercolour (as object name), pen and ink drawing

Artist

Francis Nicholson (1753 - 1844)

Title

View of Whitby

Date

Medium

Pen and ink and watercolour, on paper

Dimensions

height: 32.60 cm, width: 47.20 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Jeremy Maas Gallery, March 1967

Inscription

none

Provenance

Sold through Knight, Frank & Rutley, London, on 19 January 1967 (Lot 37), as Unknown Artist 'View of a Coastal Town'; from which sale purchased by J. S. Maas & Co. Ltd., London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in March 1967

GAC number

7547