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Description: Off the French coast, the Channel
signed 'R.P. Bonnington' l.l.
watercolour heightened with white with scratching out
14.5 x 20 cm. (5 3/4 x 8 in.)

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Notes:
PROVENANCE:
With The Fine Art Society, London.

This scene off the French coast in the Channel probably dates to c.1820. After his family's arrival in Paris in late 1818 or early 1919, Bonington began to paint small marine watercolours intended principally for the albums of collectors. Portfolios of old master prints and drawings had always been a feature of the connoisseur's cabinet, but it was not until the nineteenth century that the taste and demand for such intimate collections became a pervasive factor influencing artistic production.

The type of composition of the present watercolour, with a single vessel braving ocean swells was Louis Francia's forte, who taught the young Bonington during his time in Calais between 1817 and 1818. Bonington's early celebrity was founded exclusively on modest-sized landscape watercolours and marine subjects would remain a particular favourite of his.

We are grateful to Patrick Noon for his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.