Oil painting, 'Landscape with Rustic Bridge and Stream', attributed to Julius Caesar Ibbetson

Purchased, 9th February1872, from Mr. Buttery of 173 Piccadilly, London. No other paintings are documented as having been bought by the V&A from Mr. Buttery 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.

The exact location of this landscape is unknown. Many of Ibbetson’s works were based on direct observation. It can therefore be assumed that this painting shows an actual landscape in Britain. Like many of his contemporaries Ibbetson travelled widely in Britain throughout his life and drew from the numerous sketches he made on these tours for subjects in his paintings.

Ibbetson produced few large paintings and the small scale of 205-1872 is typical of the artist. Like his contemporary George Morland, Ibbetson produced works of varying quality. He was therefore able to make a living from indifferent works sold at low prices. This allowed him to focus on producing paintings of a higher quality. Rural capriccios such as this one are possibly the genre that Ibbetson became most associated with. He had a particular interest in vernacular themes and motifs which he explored in these works. This can be seen in the observation of rustic motifs such as the bridge, made from broken tree trunks, and the way the cows move together. In 1798 Ibbetson’s moved away from London and lived predominately in the countryside. Here where he would have been exposed to such scenes as that represented in Landscape with Rustic Bridge and Stream. The intimacy of the artist with the countryside can be seen in the depiction of this landscape. For example the way the broken tree trunk of the bridge falls down in to the stream and the way that the three standing cows move together shows the artist’s sensitivity to these surrounds.

The painterly quality and palette reflect that Dutch and Flemish seventeenth century landscapes which the artist was exposed to in London in the 1770s and 1780s. The genre of Landscape painting had developed in Dutch and Flemish seventeenth century art, particularly in the work of Meindert Hobbema (1638-1700). Works such as Landscape with Rustic Bridge and Stream reflect the growing interest amongst British artists to depict local landscape, drawing from the earlier tradition of Dutch and Flemish Landscapes. With a growing interest in the British Landscape, smaller paintings such as this one would have been popular on the art market of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

205-1872