John Sell Cotman 1782-1842

Until 1803 John Sell Cotman lived in London. However in the summer of that year he, along with the artist Paul Sandby Munn, set off on an extended tour of Yorkshire. By this date such an expedition had become vital experience for any self-respecting young landscape artist. Before leaving London, Cotman had made the acquaintance of the well known antiquary and scientist; Sir Henry Charles Englefield. Sir Henry, via a letter of recommendation, was able to introduce Cotman and Munn to his sister Ann Cholmeley of Brandsby Hall, Yorkshire. Arriving at Brandsby on the 7 July, Cotman stayed at Brandsby until 22 September. He used the Hall as a base from which to conduct sketching trips and in return gave drawing lessons to the four Cholmeley daughters.

The present lot is known to be a preparatory drawing for a watercolour, The Vault of Slingby Castle (Private Collection), which Cotman executed in 1804. The two works are compositionally slightly different, the two pigs and chickens, which appear in the drawing, have been replaced by a pool and cattle in the later watercolour.  

David Hill remarks that the present drawing is ‘noteworthy for the way in which he [Cotman] begins to make inventive use of the white of the paper, filling in the negative spaces and dragging colour up to the edges of the light, to leave a cloisonné effect,’ (see D. Hill, Cotman in the North, Watercolours of Durham and Yorkshire, 2005, p. 47).  

It seems that this preparatory drawing also made quite an impression on the Cholmeley girls, for they refer to it in a poem written soon after its completion; "In Slingsby Castle we define/ Objects, none else can know/ some say they’re stones; I know they’re swine/ because you told me so," (Hill, op cit, p.48).