JOHN SELL COTMAN (1782-1842)

Draining Mill in Lincolnshire

c.1807-8

watercolour and black lead on paper,

28.5 x 22.1 cm

inscribed on reverse: The Four Windmills

P.696

In August 1804 Cotman made a leisurely journey from Norwich to Yorkshire, visiting, among other places on the way, Croyland Abbey in Lincolnshire, which he admired enormously. From Croyland he made a short trip afield and drew a draining mill with three further mills receding into the distance. He made much use of the sketch: a large version of 1804 is in the V&A, and this drawing, probably drawn c.1807-8 (Dr Miklos Rajnai prefers c.1809), belonged to Sydney Kitson. A third version of the composition, made perhaps in the late 1820s, is in the Bacon collection.

PROVENANCE: Sydney Kitson; Elisabeth and Alice Barbara Kitson; given to Gallery, May 1973.

EXHIBITIONS: Watercolours by Turner and other Masters of the English School, London, The Cotswold Gallery, 1924, no.10 as The Four Windmills; The English Tradition: an exhibition of watercolours from two private collections, Bedford, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, 1972, no.14.

REFERENCES: The Times, 20 March 1924; S. Kitson, Life of John Sell Cotman, 1937, p.73.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.

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