AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT (BRITISH 1779-1844) Idyllic Landscape at the City`s Edge, oil on canvas 92 x 71 cm (36 1/4 x 28 in.) exhibition labels on verso
PROVENANCE Collection of A. K. B. Knight, Esq., Downton Castle, Ludlow
EXHIBITED Royal Academy Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, 1882 Jubilee Commemorative Exhibition, City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1934
LOT NOTES Augustus Wall Callcott was an English landscape painter. He studied music and sang for the Westminster Abbey choir before enrolling at the Royal Academy in the late 1790s and realizing his passion for painting. His first artistic endeavors were portraits, but he soon transitioned to landscape painting, which became the focus of his career. His elegant style and pleasing tones were noticed by many, and he was elected a royal academician at the Royal Academy in 1810. Because Callcott was so careful and detail-oriented with his landscapes, on average, only about five paintings a year could be exhibited. In addition to painting his own countryside, he travelled to France, Italy, and the Netherlands, adding variety to his picturesque compositions. Callcott received the honor of knighthood in 1837. His work was admired by his famed contemporaries J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Stothard, and remains important and revered in the landscape painting canon to this day.
