Watercolour on paper

Why we acquired this work

Purchased by The Herbert in 1994. This is one of a number of works which the gallery acquired in recent years to throw new light on collections which had seemed set in a certain direction. Another such work was 'White Wedding' an oil showing black people in Britain which we purchased in 2000 to set the 'British Life and Landscape' collection on a more relevant course.

The Subject

The Herbert has other studies of the armour in Warwick Castle, particularly a fine watercolour of the armour in the Hall by the Leicester artist John Fulleylove. We also have an engraving of armour and a giant cooking pot there both supposed to have belonged to the legendary Guy of Warwick. This watercolour takes this quirky theme further - how can puny modern man live up to the evidence of the heroic deeds of the past. The soldier of the artist's day seems no match for the soldier of the past.

The Artist

David Woodlock was born in County Tipperary in Ireland, but lived and studied in Liverpool, where he became a member of the Liverpool Academy of Arts and helped found the sketching club there.  He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and the Royal Institute for Painters in Watercolours in London.

Woodlock is recorded as living in Leamington in 1901 and 1902. Leamington is just three miles from Warwick. This fact may suggest the work dates from around then rather than the date of the 1870s previously suggested.