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Lot Essay
The present watercolour can be considered among the artist's most atmospheric and evocative works. Cotman has used a muted and limited palette to depict this industrialised city, just as dawn is breaking, as a romantic, picturesque scene.
The present watercolour was probably executed circa 1801, when Cotman was still a member of the Sketching Society (founded in 1799) whose members included Francia, Girtin and Varley. The influence of Thomas Girtin and the Dutch Old Masters, in particular Rembrandt's oil painting The Mill, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, can be seen in the present watercolour. Oppé, loc.cit., writes of Cotman's early watercolours that they are 'at once heavy in their masses and delicate in their incidents, rich, even to luxuriance, in their tone but subdued in their general hue. Ambition to render momentary gradations and effects of light and atmosphere naturally realised itself in monochrome before attempting colour'.
Cotman executed two other versions of this composition, one in the British Museum formerly owned by Dawson Turner, one of the artist's chief patrons, and another signed and dated 1801 in an American collection.
Cotman's only documented stay in Bristol was in June 1800 on his way to a sketching tour in Wales. He stayed with the Norton family, drawing several of them and sketching sites in the city. Among his other Bristol views are Bristol Ferry, dated 1802.
The composition was engraved in mezzotint by Sir Frank Short, R.A. for Portfolio, 1888, 19.
The present watercolour was probably executed circa 1801, when Cotman was still a member of the Sketching Society (founded in 1799) whose members included Francia, Girtin and Varley. The influence of Thomas Girtin and the Dutch Old Masters, in particular Rembrandt's oil painting The Mill, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, can be seen in the present watercolour. Oppé, loc.cit., writes of Cotman's early watercolours that they are 'at once heavy in their masses and delicate in their incidents, rich, even to luxuriance, in their tone but subdued in their general hue. Ambition to render momentary gradations and effects of light and atmosphere naturally realised itself in monochrome before attempting colour'.
Cotman executed two other versions of this composition, one in the British Museum formerly owned by Dawson Turner, one of the artist's chief patrons, and another signed and dated 1801 in an American collection.
Cotman's only documented stay in Bristol was in June 1800 on his way to a sketching tour in Wales. He stayed with the Norton family, drawing several of them and sketching sites in the city. Among his other Bristol views are Bristol Ferry, dated 1802.
The composition was engraved in mezzotint by Sir Frank Short, R.A. for Portfolio, 1888, 19.