Watercolour and ink on paper

The Subject

The oldest part of the castle is Ethelfleda's Mound. Ethelfleda was a daughter of King Alfred the Great, and it is said that she built it as part of a network to help protect the kindom of Wessex (then the southern English kingdom). Henry de Newburgh, the new Earl of Warwick, built a motte and bailey fort on the site for his king and lord William the Conqueror in the 11th century. From there it grew to become one of the very greatest castles in England. Unlike nearby Kenilworth Castle, it remained in the hands of the Earls of Warwick, and did not become a ruin. In 1978 it was sold to the Tussauds group and is one of the country's great tourist attractions.

The Artist

Technically an amateur, John White Abbott, together with Francis Towne, has been seen since the twentieth century as one of the greatest of all watercolourists and at the same time one of the forerunners of the modern movement.

Born in Exeter, Abbott was an apothecary and surgeon in that ciy for most of his life. He spent his spare time painting, and studied under Francis Towne. In 1791 he toured Scotland, the Lake District, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Warwickshire with Towne, and this view comes from that remarkable tour.

Watercolours by both artists from that tour include celebrated works with the most ambitious compositions. Many of the Abbott's and Towne's works are essentially abstract, although also conveying the geometry of mountains and lakes.

Abbott was introduced to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West and other

artists when he visited London. His works were hung in the Royal Academy although he never sought to sell them. Admired at the time, those who understood art encouraged him to continue to paint. Like Towne, Abbott became forgotten until well into the 20th century.

The Place of John White Abbott in Art

One of the treasures of the Tate Gallery is Francis Towne's watercolour 'The Source of the Arveyron', 1781, a work which the Tate describes as 'an almost abstract vision'. That work indeed is almost totally abstract, consisting of flat shapes of colour dynamically filling the surface of the image, with little suggestion of depth. As his friend and pupil, Abbott worked with Towne's conceptions about composition, and with his style of painting in simple flat geometric areas. These he often defined almost like surfaces on the page by surrounding them with solid ink lines. This watercolour is therefore intrinsically as modern as many Art Deco designs from almost two hundred years later. It is also a beautiful and sensitive watercolour and rendition of a view.

Towne and Abbott's real successor was John Sell Cotman in Norwich at the other side of England, although his feeling for surfaces in painting was more inspired by the solitary genius of John Crome in Norwich, an artist with an innate feel for art.

Today the works of Towne and Abbott are much appreciated for their abstract quality, simplified shapes and cool flat washes edged by exquisite ink lines.