Beschreibung:

Smetham (James, 1821-1889). An archive of watercolours, 60 watercolours on 25 sheets of paper, mainly studies of people, a few landscapes, some with captions including: Mr Wilson as the Gorilla (dated 'Aug 14 62'), Friar Claus, The woman whose husband little thought she was in London, sharpening stone saw, Hawthornden (date Aug 26), etc., all loose, some laid onto card, various sizes, largest 17.6 x 12.5 (6 7/8 x 5 ins), together with a transcript and photocopy of a letter written in 1878 by the artist’s daughter to her mother (Quantity: 1 small box) Provenance: Acquired from the artist’s family. The watercolours come from an album (now dismantled) which contained 229 drawings and watercolours, along with one print and one photograph. Inscribed on the frontispiece in pencil 'Scraps from Sketch Books – Jas. Smetham'. Smetham was born in Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire on September 8, 1821, the son of a middle-class Methodist preacher. In childhood Smetham said he "formed the desire of becoming a painter" and afterwards "never had a thought of being anything else". Originally apprenticed to an architect he entered the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer in 1843 but lasted only a few months, partly due to health reasons. Smetham returned to London in 1851 when he began exhibiting at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and elsewhere. In the same year he was hired as a drawing teacher for students training to be teachers at the Wesleyan Normal College at Westminster. In 1854 he married Sarah Goble, a fellow teacher at the school and went on to have six children including a girl called Edie. He received praise from some eminent contemporaries like John Ruskin, George Frederick Watts and Dante Gabriel Rossetti who hailed his friends' paintings as "the flower of modern art". Throughout his life Smetham had suffered from bouts of mental illness but it was in the Autumn of 1877 that he succumbed to a debilitating attack. After this he withdrew from the world. Almost a year later he received the album compiled by his daughter Edie and her siblings.