Lea Castle from the river Stour, Worcestershire
Lea Castle from the river Stour, Worcestershire
Lea Castle from the river Stour, WorcestershireSigned with initials lower right: JWD 1814pen and brown ink and wash over pencil22.3 by 37 cm., 8 ¾ by 14 ½ in.Provenance:Iolo Williams (1890-1962);By descent until 2024This is one of a group of drawings of Lea Castle near Wolverley drawn in the summer of 1814. Ward appears to have been commissioned by John Knight (1765-1850) to draw the neo-gothic castle shortly after it was built in circa 1810. He sold the castle in around 1818 to finance his purchase of Exmoor Forest. Knight was a major patron of contemporary art at the period and Governor of the British Institution. He was the nephew of Coplestone Warre Bampfylde and Richard Payne Knight was his father's cousin. Watercolours of the interior of Lea Castle attributed to John Carter are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lea Castle was demolished in 1945 - only the north lodges and gateway survive.Another view of Lea Castle by Ward, also signed and dated 1814, is in the Yale Center for British Art (B2002.10.1). Two larger drawings of the castle including one also taken from the river were with Lowell Libson in 2013 (see Breadth & Quality - Oil studies, Watercolours & Drawings by James Ward RA, 2013, nos. 15 and 16, pp.22-23, ill.).){kind=link}
James Ward, R.A. (1769-1859)
Lea Castle from the river Stour, Worcestershire
Signed with initials lower right: JWD 1814
pen and brown ink and wash over pencil
22.3 by 37 cm., 8 ¾ by 14 ½ in.
Provenance:
Iolo Williams (1890-1962);
By descent until 2024
This is one of a group of drawings of Lea Castle near Wolverley drawn in the summer of 1814. Ward appears to have been commissioned by John Knight (1765-1850) to draw the neo-gothic castle shortly after it was built in circa 1810. He sold the castle in around 1818 to finance his purchase of Exmoor Forest. Knight was a major patron of contemporary art at the period and Governor of the British Institution. He was the nephew of Coplestone Warre Bampfylde and Richard Payne Knight was his father's cousin. Watercolours of the interior of Lea Castle attributed to John Carter are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lea Castle was demolished in 1945 - only the north lodges and gateway survive.
Another view of Lea Castle by Ward, also signed and dated 1814, is in the Yale Center for British Art (B2002.10.1). Two larger drawings of the castle including one also taken from the river were with Lowell Libson in 2013 (see Breadth & Quality - Oil studies, Watercolours & Drawings by James Ward RA, 2013, nos. 15 and 16, pp.22-23, ill.).