Amelia Noel
The Seat of Richard Arkwright, Cromford, near Matlock

Public Domain

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Images(5)

Artist Amelia Noel (British, active 1794–1810)British, active 1794–1810

CultureBritish

Titles

The Seat of Richard Arkwright, Cromford, near Matlock

Datec. 1798

MediumWatercolor and graphite with scratching out on wove paper

DimensionsSheet: 4 1/8 × 6 7/16 in. (10.5 × 16.4 cm)

Credit LineThe Stuart Collection, gift of Dena M. Woodall and Skip Fowler and Jonny and Cressida Yarker in honor of Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer on the occasion of her 92nd Birthday

Object number2023.432

Not on view

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Department

Prints and Drawings

Special Collections

The Stuart Collection

Object Type

DRAWINGS, PASTELS & WATERCOLORS

ProvenanceThe artist, by 1798; Dr. John Percy (1817-1889) (Lugt 1504), London, by 1876; [London, Christie’s, Catalogue of the very valuable and extensive collection of Water-colour Drawings of D. John Percy, F.R.S., 22 April, 1890, lot 897]; Walter Augustus Brandt (1902-1978), at least by 2012-2022; by descent, 1978-2022; [Lowell Libson and Jonny Yarker, Ltd, London, 2022-2023]; given to the MFAH, 2023.

1 John Percy was a Fellow of the Royal Society and member of the Burlington Fine Arts Club. According to Sidney Colvin, the 19th-century keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum, his collection was “the most complete ever formed for the illustration of the history of British art, especially English watercolour painting.” [Fig 9].
2 Walter Brandt (1902-1978) Brandt was a pioneering collector of neoclassical and romantic drawings who formed his collection in the decades after WWII. He was also the brother of the acclaimed photographer Bill Brandt. Brandt, the son of Ludwig and Lili, was born in Hamburg in 1902. The family came to London in the 1920s, and in 1923 Walter entered the family firm of William Brandt & Son & Co., an international trading agency based in the City. It was during the second world war, his wife and children living in Cornwall, that Walter began collecting. His first interest was modern British art, and he purchased works by artists including John Piper and Henry Moore. However, his collecting habits moved on to focus on works by British artists born before 1800, a criteria he stuck to fairly rigorously, with a few slight exceptions. Brandt was unusual amongst watercolor collectors of the time in that he never bought bundles of drawings, and so each individual sheet in the collection was specifically chosen, resulting in a collection of unusual and remarkable quality. (See Sudbury, Gainsborough’s House, Home and Abroad: Drawings and Watercolours from a Private Collection 1700 to 1840, exh. cat. June 30-September 29, 2012 and London, Christies, British Drawings and Watercolors, 7 June 2023, under lot 113). [Fig 10].
Exhibition HistoryN/A
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Recto: Signed in black ink, in image, center bottom edge: Amelia Noel [cursive]
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, center top edge: V 75
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, lower center: Amelia Noel [cursive]
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, bottom left corner: 04269 / 920 [20 underlined]
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, center bottom edge: 5

Recto: Signed in black ink, in image, center bottom edge: Amelia Noel [cursive]

Verso: Stamp in black ink, bottom left corner
Verso: Stamp in black ink, lower left center

Catalogue raisonnéNone

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