Oil Painting, 'The Mermaid's Haunt', Julius Caesar Ibbetson, 1804

An oil painting showing female nudes emerging from a pool surrounded by wooded cliffs, drying their hair and bodies with white draperies.

Purchased, 8th November, 1872, from R. Clothier, Esq, London for £70. No other paintings are documented as having been bought by the V&A from F. Harris and Sons on this occasion.

Historical significance: Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) worked as a painter, printmaker and writer. Following an apprenticeship to the ship painter John Fletcher in Hull, Ibbetson became a scene painter. He moved to London in 1777, where he worked as both a scene painter and picture restorer. From 1785 he began to exhibit landscapes, genre scenes and portraits at the Royal Academy. In 1787-8 he was the personal draughtsman to Col. Charles Cathcart (d.1788) on the first British Mission to Beijing. The voyage also included visits to Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope and Java. Forced to return to England following Cathcart’s death, Ibbetson worked painting oils and watercolours of the subjects seen on his frequent tours. He also contributed a Scene from the “Taming of the Shrew” (untraced) to John Boydells (1719-1804) Shakespeare Gallery. Ibbetson also worked as an illustrator, providing works for John Church’s folio A cabinet of Quadrupeds (1805). The artist moved to the north of England in 1798. He spent time living in Liverpool and Edinburgh before settling in the town of Masham, North Yorkshire. In 1803 he published An Accidence, or Gamut, of Painting in Oils and Water Colours, part autobiography, part technical handbook. In this he sited Claude Lorrain and Aelbert Cuyp as masters of Landscape composition. In his paintings Ibbetson’s style often changes depending on the subject he has chosen to represent. His technique often employs a thick impasto and strong chiaroscuro, a style which he developed through studying from Dutch masters while working for a London dealer named Clarke in the late 1770s and early 1780s. Like his contemporary George Morland (17191-1797), Ibbetson is known to have painted works of different standards to be sold. The style of his oil paintings, employing thick impasto and strong chiaroscuro was developed by the artist by studying from Dutch masters while working for a London dealer named Clarke in the late 1770s and early 1780s.

A note on the object file for this painting states that another version of The Mermaid’s Haunt, dated 1803, exists in a private collection. In his monograph Morland and Ibbetson Henderson states that although although attributed to Ibbetson this painting does not compare with any of the artist’s works. Both versions of The Mermaid’s Haunt are the only works in which Ibbetson depicts the female nude. The female bathers, placed in the foreground of the painting, have classical overtones. In comparison to other Arcadian views of the early nineteenth century this landscape has been treated very differently. Ibbetson had a preference to faithfully representing his environs rather than idealizing them in an Arcadian manner. This can be seen in the choice of the grounds of Hawthornden, the residence of the poet William Drummond (1585-1649), for this painting. The artist visited the poet’s residence in Midlothian, as part of his first trip to Scotland, having been invited there in 1801 by his patron, the English art collector Thomas Vernon.

The figures of all the bathers are said to be based on the artist’s wife, Bella nee Thompson, whom he had married in 1801. As an artist Ibbetson did not draw from his imagination but preferred to paint what was around him. A portrait of his wife dated 1803 is in the National Gallery, London (Inv. No. 6268), dating to the same year as The Mermaid’s Haunt. In the early nineteenth century the nude was associated with Classical art, which was highly regarded, particularly by the Royal Academy of Art. Including the nude would have been seen as a reference to this earlier form of art. The elongated forms and graceful posture of the figures recalls classical models. However it also has a feeling of direct observation that dominates the artist’s work.

This period was marked by financial instability for the artist, which resulted in his making new friends and patrons. The version in the V&A was presumably painted at the request of a patron who had seen the earlier work. The fact that Ibbetson was commissioned to produce a copy of this painting shows how the artist was establishing new connections for his work. This practice of producing a painting at the request of a patron is an example of how the artist worked supplying works to his client’s demand. It also demonstrates Ibbetson’s popularity in the early nineteenth century, something which if often overlooked today.

972-1872