Jacob's Bridge
Watercolour
ca. 1800 (painted)
ca. 1800 (painted)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
A watercolour scene from Syria or Jersualem.
Object details
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Object type | |
Title | Jacob's Bridge (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Ink and watercolour, laid down on paper mount with wash borders |
Brief description | `Jacob's Bridge'. Watercolour in an album entitled `Picturesque Scenery in the Holy Land and Syria delineated during the Campaigns of 1799 & 1800', about 1800. Francis B.[? Brockhill] Spilsbury |
Physical description | A watercolour scene from Syria or Jersualem. |
Dimensions |
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Styles | |
Marks and inscriptions | Numbered N.o. 14. The text begins: On the 18th.. October 1799, the advanced Guard
of The Grand Vizier's army; commanded by the Aga of the Janazaries, was encamped on this ground. The British Officers pitched their Tent on the spot occupied by the foreground of this drawing - The view, the whole of which is mountainous, is between the Lakes of Tiberia. [...] |
Credit line | Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A |
Object history | According to Rodney Searight: - `Bt fr Albany Gallery, Jan. 1968, £250'. [the Album] |
Historical context | This watercolour was reproduced in F. B. Spilsbury, Picturesque Scenery In The Holy Land And Syria, Delineated During the Campaigns Of 1799 and 1800, 1803, Plate 15, entitled Jacob's Bridge. See Abbey (381) for description of the volume published 1803; plate numbers given follow the numbering in that copy. See also SP.564 for a second edition (1819). The lettering on each plate states that they are after drawings by Daniel Orme from Spilsbury's on-the-spot sketches. SD.998:1-19 are clearly not Spilsbury's first-hand sketches, but may be the drawings he prepared for the engravers, with the addition of three hand-coloured etchings/engraving. While they (including the etchings/engraving, if he was indeed the author of The Art of Etching and Aquatinting) may represent a further stage executed by Spilsbury himself, it is just possible that they comprise the set drawn by Daniel Orme for publication. Orme (c.1766-after 1832) was a portrait painter in oils and miniature and an engraver. He studied at the RA Schools and worked in London, exhibiting at the RA 1797?1801, until 1814. He was probably the brother of Edward and William Orme, also artists and engravers. (See DNB and Hardie, III, p.44.) In 1799 Napoleon laid siege to Acre but in May was repulsed by the Turks with the aid of the British fleet commanded by Sir William Sidney Smith. Afterwards Spilsbury participated in various reconnoitering trips made by British officers into Syria and Palestine: see text of Picturesque Scenery .... |
Subjects depicted | |
Places depicted | |
Bibliographic reference | Searight, Rodney. The Middle East : watercolours and drawings by British and foreign artists and travellers, 1750-1900, from the collection of Rodney Searight, Esq. London, 1971 |
Collection | |
Accession number | SD.998:14 |
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Record created | June 9, 2008 |
Record URL |
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