Russell (John, 1745-1806). A collection of 262 original drawings and watercolours, 1757-1794

Lot description

Russell (John, 1745-1806). A collection of 262 original drawings and watercolours, 1757-1794 * Russell (John, 1745-1806). A collection of 262 original drawings and watercolours, 1757-1794, 262 watercolours and drawings in pen, ink, and wash, plus three in red chalk, on laid paper, subjects include portraits, mythological and religious studies, classical and landscape scenes, views of English towns, churches and cottages, many signed and dated, some with handwritten caption, some soiling and marginal closed tears, one drawing torn into two and one or two with some minor loss, mostly 20.5 x 14.5 cm, 25 x 17.5 cm and 20 x 32 cm, mostly mounted into two volumes of Acts of Parliament, 1753, original panelled calf gilt, with George II royal coat of arms gilt to boards, extremities worn and some scuffing to boards, upper board of second volume near detached, folio (32 x 20.5 cm) QTY: (2) NOTE: English painter John Russell (1745-1806) was renowned for his portrait work in oils and pastels. British neoclassical sculptor John Bacon (1740-1799) defined him ‘the finest painter in crayon this country ever produced’, while English painter Richard Redgrave praised him as ‘the prince of crayon portrait-painters’ (George C. Williamson, John Russell, R.A., 1894, p. 86). The son of a Guildford bookseller and print seller, Russell soon showed precocious artistic talent and, at the age of 14, won a prize of four guineas from the Society of Arts. After establishing his own studio in London in 1767, he quickly became a portrait painter highly esteemed by fashionable society, and was appointed Crayon Painter to George III in 1790. This remarkable collection of original drawings and watercolours offers a unique opportunity to observe Russell’s artistic development from an early age through to maturity. The first album contains drawings and sketches executed largely between 1757 and 1758, and demonstrates Russell’s remarkable precociousness. Most of his earliest works were copied from engravings that the young artist likely encountered in his father’s bookshop in Guildford. These included engravings by Thomas Worlidge and etchings after Rembrandt, as well as topographical views of Rome and Vienna. In some cases, as with an engraving of a man with a stick by Worlidge, Russell repeated the subject several times, gradually refining his technique and revealing his early artistic development and experimentation. While these early drawings reveal Russell’s youthful genius, the second volume presents a more mature and accomplished style. Executed largely between 1786 and 1794, these watercolours and drawings demonstrate Russell’s interest in landscape painting and provide a pictorial record of his extensive travels throughout England. During visits to Oxford in 1786, he produced views of Merton College, Magdalen College, Oxford Castle, and the local churches of St Martin’s, St Ebbe’s, and St Giles’s. Subjects also include landscapes, churches, and cottages observed during his travels in Buckinghamshire, Sussex, Surrey, Reading, Jersey, Kent, Canterbury, Tetsworth, Hampshire, and Whitby. A full list, with descriptions of each drawing, is available on request.