A small boat on a river bank
c. 1818
Artist: | John Sell Cotman, British, 1782 - 1842 |
Title: | A small boat on a river bank; called an 'Eel Drogue' |
Date: | c. 1818 |
Object name: | Drawing |
Medium: | Graphite on wove paper |
Support: | Off-white, wove paper, watermarked 'TBS 18...', from a sketchbook with a green fore-edge. |
Dimensions: |
Sight size: 75 mm x 110 mm Mount: 196 mm x 267 mm |
Reference: | LEEAG.1949.0009.0211 |
Credit Line: | Bequeathed by Sydney Decimus Kitson, 1949 |
This is a careful graphite study of a small, flat-bottomed boat, oddly truncated like a rowing-boat that has been sawn in half. It appears full of holes, so could presumably readily fill with water and drain. An inscription on the mount by an unidentified hand identifies the boat as an 'Eel drogue'. The vessel is surrounded with other paraphernalia, presumably of the eel-catching trade. Kitson 1926 notes an erased inscription on the verso: '/21 Sketch for ... Boat'.
The style is mature, but still careful and self-conscious. A date of before 1820 might be preferred, and there is some possibility that this might be an observation in Normandy.
It has not been previously noticed that similar vessels figure in an important watercolour of St Benet's Abbey dated 1831 at the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM: 1947.217.211 : F). There is a close correspondence between that seen here at the lower right, and one in the right foreground of the watercolour.
LEEAG.1949.0009.0212a is likewise on paper with a green fore-edge. The present sheet appears to be the full width of the original, but has been trimmed at the bottom. The other appears to be the full height, but has been trimmed at the left, so we might infer an original page size of 80 x 110 mm (3 3/8 x 4 3/8 ins).
This drawing is one of eleven mounted on one large sheet (B) as acquired by Sydney Kitson in 1926. The group consisted mostly of boats or windmills, and quite miscellanous, although most of the individual sheets show some sign of having come from sketchbooks with green or yellow fore-edges. Sometime between 1926 and 1937, Kitson mounted them all individually and gave them new numbers for the catalogue drawn up in the latter year. The drawings were dispersed in the 1937 numeration, thus obscuring the previous sheet relationship of the drawings.
David Hill, September 2017
Provenance
One of perhaps two thousand pencil drawings mounted by Cotman on large sheets sometime after 1820 and by descent to the 'Highly important sale by auction of a rare and valuable collection of works of art, by the following artists: John Sell Cotman, Miles Edmund Cotman, Varley, Sillett, Hobart, and Teniers, Pritchett, Hannah, S D Colkett, Nursey, and others..' at Murrell's Bazaar salerooms, Norwich, 26-27 November 1862;
G.A.King, stained-glass artist of Norwich, to;
W. Boswell & Son, Norwich, where bought September 1926 by S.D.Kitson (1871 - 1937);
S.D.Kitson (1871 - 1937) bequeathed to Leeds Art Gallery and accessioned 1949;
Published References
Sydney Decimus Kitson, 'Pencil Sketches by J.S.Cotman', unpublished manuscript notebook (Leeds Art Gallery, The Kitson Archive, 1926), cat. B.06;
Sydney Decimus Kitson, 'The Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings by J.S.Cotman', 1924-1937, unpublished typescript (Leeds Art Gallery, The Kitson Archive, 1924 - 1937) cat. 225;
'Leeds City Art Galleries: Concise Catalogue', (Leeds, Leeds City Council, 1976) cat. 9.211/49;
Related Objects
Sailing boat', Leeds Art Gallery, LEEAG.1949.0009.0212a;
Watercolour, 'St Benet's Abbey' dated 1831 at Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM: 1947.217.211 : F)
Inscriptions
Mount, recto, in graphite by S.D. Kitson [?], 'Eel drogue';
Collector's Notes
Sydney Decimus Kitson, 'The Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings by J.S.Cotman', 1924-1937, unpublished typescript (Leeds Art Gallery, The Kitson Archive, 1924 - 1937) cat. 225;
PUNT ON SHORE
3 1/8" x 4 1/8"
Pencil on paper from green edged sketch book.
Watermark. T. BA
18
writing (erased) " /21 sketch of.....(?) boat".
Bought from Boswell. Sept: 1926.
Alternate Numbers
Other number: 9.211/49
Previous Number: LEEAG.PA.1949.0009.0211
Negative Number: Neg. No. 862/6(13)
Kitson Number: KITSON.225.B.06