Sir Edward John Poynter, Bart., P.R.A., R.W.S. 1836-1919

Lynton and the surrounding scenery were becoming increasingly popular as beauty spots in the middle years of the nineteenth century and many artists visited the area.  Poynter's finely drawn view of Castle Rock was most likely drawn on the spot.  Truth to nature, an essential principle which underscored the Pre-Raphaelite movement, is conveyed through the artist's concentration on naturalistic detail.  This watercolour may well have been influenced by William Henry Millais' finely detailed and naturalistic handling demonstrated in works such as The Valley of Rocks, Lynton, North Devon, Showing Lee Abbey of 1857, now in the collection of Michael Webb (see Allen Staley and Christopher Newall, Pre-Raphaelite Vision Truth to Nature, 2004, p.45, no.13).  Poynter's landscape can also be compared, in style and subject, to George Pryce Boyce's The East Lynn at Middleham, North Devon of 1858 (ibid.p.160, no.93)

Poynter was one of the twenty-six founding members of the Dudley Gallery and he exhibited four Pre-Raphaelite landscapes of the 1860's at its General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings at the Egyptian Hall.  Agnes Macdonald visited the exhibition with her sister, Georgiana Burne-Jones, and said of her future husband's works: 'two figures scenes of Poynter's, and four landscapes: these latter are considered simple perfection.  Ned [Burne-Jones] says no landscapes since the Turner ones are so good.' (ibid., p.232)