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Creator:
William Taverner, 1703–1772
Title:
Nymphs Bathing in a Wooded Glade
Date:
ca. 1765-1770
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor, gouache and pen and brown ink on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 12 × 15 1/4 inches (30.5 × 38.7 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

verso: "Nymphs bathing/Polinburg"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1854
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
landscape | nymphs | religious and mythological subject | river
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:13028
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The strands of ideal and topographical landscape, quite separate and distinct at the beginning of the eighteenth century - and in the work of Lens - would become increasingly entwined over the course of the century. William Taverner, a lawyer and amateur draftsman and painter, felt less constraint in combining classical elements with observation of the English countryside. George Vertue credited Taverner with "a wonderful genius to drawing of Landskap in an excellent manner, adorned with figures in a stile above the common." The inscription on the verso of Nymphs Bathing in a Glade, just such a figure adorned landscape, suggests that in this work Taverner echoed, if not copied, a composition by the seventeenth-century Dutch Italianate painter Cornelis Poelenbergh. Despite his amateur status Taverner's landscapes were much admired and his drawings collected by professional artists such as Paul Sandby and connoisseurs such as Richard Payne Knight. At his death the Gentleman's Magazine deemed him 'one of the best landscape painters England has ever produced." He has continued to be regarded as one of the important early contributors to the rise of landscape painting in England.

Scott Wilcox



Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001. pg. cat. 44 no. 58

British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Block Museum of Art, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Toledo Museum of Art, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Portland Art Museum, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Scott Wilcox, British watercolors : drawings of the 18th and 19th centuries from the Yale Center for British Art, , Hudson Hill Press, New York, 1985, no. 4, pl. 4, ND1928 W533 1985 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Scott Wilcox, Line of beauty : British drawings and watercolors of the eighteenth century, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, pp. 58-9, no. 44, NC228 W53 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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