Figures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscape

1812

Not on view

As a founding member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, Varley profoundly influenced the medium's development in nineteenth-century Britain. He elevated its status at exhibitions and, as a popular teacher and the author of widely read instructional manuals, influenced hundreds of students. This work is executed mostly in monochrome with a few touches of color, and offers a rare glimpse of Varley's early style—which became codified and sometimes repetitive at mid-career. Fluid strokes and layers of tone are here applied to describe trees and rocks, with figures treated in a summary manner.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Figures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscape
Artist: John Varley (British, London 1778–1842 London)
Date: 1812
Medium: Watercolor, and traces of graphite
Dimensions: Sheet: 13 3/16 × 19 7/8 in. (33.5 × 50.5 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Funds from various donors, 2016
Object Number: 2016.204
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By John Varley

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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A Practical Treatise on Perspective, Adapted for the Study of Those Who Draw from Nature, By Which the Usual Errors May Be Avoided

Multiple artists/makers

1815

A Practical Treatise on Perspective, Adapted for the Study of Those Who Draw From Nature by which the Usual Errours May be Corrected

John Varley

Fielding Lucas, Jr.

ca. 1820

Fortified entrance to a Welsh town (East gate of Caernarvon), John Varley British, Watercolor and graphite — Fortified entrance to a Welsh town (East gate of Caernarvon)
John Varley
ca. 1802

Bamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, Northumberland, John Varley British, Watercolor and graphite with scratching out — Bamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, Northumberland
John Varley
1827

A View of Chester, John Varley British, Watercolor, reinforced in places with gum, over graphite on card. — A View of Chester
John Varley
1836

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