The Great Gate of St. Augustine's Monastery, Canterbury
Date:
1757
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor with pen and gray ink over graphite on thick, textured, cream laid paper on contemporary mount
Dimensions:
Sheet: 8 1/8 × 15 3/16 inches (20.6 × 38.6 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
In pen and brown ink, on verso: "The Great Gate of St. Austin's Monastery | J. Skelton 1757."; on a seperate backing sheet, in pen and brown ink: "St. Augustine's Monastery. Canterbury. | J Skelton 1757"; in a different hand, in graphite: "St. Augustines Monastery | Canterbury | J Skelton | 1757 No. 2"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1734
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30)The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05)The Art of Paul Sandby (Yale Center for British Art, 1985-04-10 - 1985-06-23)
Publications:
S. Rowland Pierce, Jonathan Skelton and his water colours : a check list, Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 36, 1960, p. 15, no. 22, N12 .W35 A1 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) Also available online via JSTOR.Sotheby's sale catalogue : Fine eighteenth and nineteenth century drawings and paintings : 13 July 1966, Sotheby's, July 13, 1966, p. 4, lot 9, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)The Art of Paul Sandby, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 1985, pp. 14-5, no. 3, NJ18 Sa56 R62 (YCBA)Scott Wilcox, Line of beauty : British drawings and watercolors of the eighteenth century, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, p. 156, no. 132, NC228 W53 2001 (YCBA)Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 28-29, no. 9, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Although they seldom had the cachet of imaginary landscapes, most early watercolors were topographical in nature. Jonathan Skelton’s view of the ruins of St. Augustine’s Monastery in Canterbury is typical in both its antiquarian subject and its technique of low-toned washes of color combined with pen. Nevertheless, Skelton’s use of watercolor is highly sophisticated. The dark foreground giving way to a lighter middle ground suggests his study of seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes. Skelton’s watercolors showed an early promise that was never to be fulfilled. In 1758 he left England to study in Italy. This ought to have provided an excellent foundation for his career, but he died suddenly in Rome the following year. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)