Watercolor and graphite on thick, moderately textured, beige wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 11 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches (29.2 x 24.1 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in pen with brown ink, lower left: "J. Varley 1809."; inscribed in pen, with brown ink, verso, lower left: "No 25 J. Varley Holy Island | inscribed in graphite, verso, lower left: "1A | 23592"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Holy Island | Northumberland | England | United Kingdom
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)
Publications:
Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 124-125, no. 53, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
John Varley fell under the spell of Thomas Girtin in his youth, and his view of An Arch at Holy Island readily betrays Girtin’s influence. Varley toured Northumberland in 18o8, when he must have made drawings of this archway at Lindisfarne Priory, looking out towards St. Cuthbert’s Island. Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the Northumberland coast that played a key role in the development of Christianity in Britain. This made it a required stopping point for eighteenth-century travelers on the picturesque itinerary through the north. 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)