John Sell Cotman

Study of weeds Kirkstall
1803

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This is a careful graphite study of dock plants and perhaps some butterbur leaves. Cotman has inscribed the drawing with the location and occasion: 'Kirkstall/ July 28. 1803/ Sepr 21 1803'.

Cotman made other studies at Kirkstall Abbey near Leeds on his two visits in 1803; the Leeds collection includes a watercolour sketch of the interior of the chapter house (LEEAG.1995.0039.0029) and Cotman etched a view of the west front in 1811 for his series of 'Miscellaneous Etchings' published in the same year. Leeds has two impressions of the etching (LEEDM.E.1966.0005.0050, page 49, and LEEDM.E.2016.0053).

The inscription indicates that Cotman sketched the subject first on 28 July, and then returned to finish his study on 21 September. As Hill 2005, p.45 remarks, this appears to be excessive devotion to such a slight subject, and Cotman was probably mindful of the comic implications of his inscription. It is surprising that he managed to locate the subject again; perhaps even more so that it was sufficiently unchanged for the revisit to have been at all worthwhile. Given the effort invested in the sketch, it is a little disappointing that this detail did not find its way into the etching.

This drawing is one of eleven mounted on one large sheet ('I') as acquired by Sydney Kitson in 1928. The group comprises entirely of studies of plants. Sometime before 1937, Kitson mounted them all individually and gave them new numbers for the catalogue drawn up in the latter year [K256-266].

David Hill, November 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;

  Charles Muskett, bookseller and printer of Norwich (1804-1856) by whom sold to Mr Orfeur, businessman of Yarmouth and later civil servant;

  [?John] Orfeur and by descent to his son, Mr Herbert Orfeur of the Old House, Wimborne Dorset;

  Herbert Orfeur (d.1945), by whom sold June 1928 to S.D.Kitson (1871 - 1937);

  Sydney Decimus Kitson (1871-1937) by whom bequeathed to Leeds Art Gallery.

• Published References

  Sydney Decimus Kitson, 'The Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings by J.S.Cotman', 1924-1937, unpublished typescript at Leeds Art Gallery, c.1937, cat.266 (I.11)

  Sydney Decimus Kitson, 'The Life of John Sell Cotman' [London: Faber & Faber, 1937] p.52;

  Leeds City Art Galleries Concise Catalogue, 1976, as 9.573/49;

  Miklos Rajnai and Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, 'John Sell Cotman 1782-1842: Early Drawings (1798-1812) in Norwich Castle Museum' [Norwich: Norfolk Museums Service, 1979] under no.33 and n.2;

  Miklos Rajnai [and others], 'John Sell Cotman 1782-1842', [London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1982] under No.30;

  David Hill, 'Cotman in the North: Watercolours of Durham and Yorkshire' [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005] p.44, repr pl.50;

• Exhibition History

  Barnard Castle, Bowes Museum and Leeds, Harewood House, 2005, May-July and August-October 2005, 'Sense and Sensibility: Cotman Watercolours of Durham and Yorkshire', repr. Hill 2005, pl.50;

  September 2010 - February 2011, John Sell Cotman's Northern Tours, Leeds Art Gallery

• Related Objects

  J S Cotman, watercolour sketch of the 'Interior of the chapter house of Kirkstall Abbey', Leeds Art Gallery (LEEAG.1995.0039.0029);

  J.S.Cotman etching of The west front of Kirkstall Abbey', d.1811 for his series of 'Miscellaneous Etchings' published in the same year. Leeds has two impressions of the etching (LEEDM.E.1966.0005.0050, page 49, and LEEDM.E.2016.0053).

• Inscriptions

  Kirkstall - July 28 1803 / Sep 21 1803

• Collector's Notes

  Sydney Decimus Kitson, 'The Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings by J.S.Cotman', 1924-1937, unpublished typescript at Leeds Art Gallery, c.1937, cat.266 (I.11) as:
  '7 x 6. Study of Weeds.
  Inscribed - 'Kirkstall July 28 - 1803/ Sept 21 - 1803'.
  Ex Muskett-Orpen Coll: (I.11).
  June 1928';

• Alternate Numbers

  Other number: 9.573/49
  Negative Number: 862/41(10a)
  Kitson Number: KITSON.266.I.11