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1 of 253523 objects
George III, King of the United Kingdom (1738-1820)
View through an arch
Black and white chalk on blue paper | 28.7 x 48.8 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 980241
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A chalk drawing showing a view of buildings through an archway. The arch is shown in the foreground, with standing stones shown to the right. The buildings are shown behind, with a crenellated tower at the centre. Against a setting sky.
This is one of a series of forty-five loose drawings, in black and white chalk on blue-grey paper, housed between the stiff blue card leaves of a volume labelled Landscapes drawn by H.M. The drawings are mostly landscape compositions, containing architectural elements in the foreground. For other items in this volume see George III Landscapes. The fact that the architecture is drawn with the help of a ruler would appear to link these drawings with the young King’s lessons in perspectival drawing. Joshua Kirby was the Prince’s teacher of perspective drawing from 1756 but his lessons are likely to have ceased by 1765 when he is described - in the past tense - as having ‘taught H.M. to draw’.
All but two of the drawings are of imaginary, generically classical landscapes; the two exceptions depict Windsor Castle (RCIN 980236) and Syon House (RCIN 980237). Others in the series feature classical buildings derived from engraved sources from publications such as Le Roy’s Monuments de la Grèce (1758).
The competent handling of black and white chalk throughout this series may also have resulted from lessons with Kirby. The landscapes exhibited by Kirby at the Society of Artists in 1767 and 1769 were said by Horace Walpole to have been painted by George III. Kirby’s offical role at this time was Clerk of the Works at Richmond and Kew.
Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004 -
Medium and techniques
Black and white chalk on blue paper
Measurements
28.7 x 48.8 cm (sheet of paper)
