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Details
James Bolton (1735-1799)
Lilium martagon albiflorum (White Martagon Lily)
signed 'James Bolton Halifax'
pencil and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour, on vellum, mounted on cloth, the cloth on wooden stretcher, framed and glazed
9 x 7.25in. (230 x 183mm).
A RARE ORIGINAL WATERCOLOUR ON VELLUM BY 'THE FINEST DRAWER AND COLOURER IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND' (Leeds Mercury 19 January 1799). Bolton, perhaps the greatest of the self-taught 18th-century English natural history artists, outlined his method of working in a manuscript preface to an album of original flower drawings (now in the Natural History Museum): 'In everyone, I have copied a Natural Flower, the most perfect of its kind that I could procure, and have endeavoured to represent the Attitude or posture of the whole, as well as the particular parts; judging this the likeliest way to represent Nature truly. Certainly it is the duty of everyone, who attempts imitation of this kind, to be as faithfull and just as possible... April ye 5th. AD.1788'.
Bolton, like his famous contemporary Gilbert White (1720-1793), concentrated his broad-based natural history studies on a relatively small area in and around Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. A good field naturalist, he observed and drew insects, fungi, ferns, plants and birds. From the 1770's onwards he made his living as a natural history collector and artist. In addition, Bolton had a number of patrons in the north of England, and his visits to large houses such as Gawthorpe Hall, Nostell Priory, Towneley Hall and Dunkenhalgh Hall were most probably in the capacity of drawing master. He is now best known for his published works on fungi and ferns, and also produced a two volume work on British songbirds
Original botanical drawings by Bolton rarely appear at auction: in the last ten years records show only a small group of six drawings on paper, sold in these rooms, 11 November 1998, lots 14-19.
Lilium martagon albiflorum (White Martagon Lily)
signed 'James Bolton Halifax'
pencil and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour, on vellum, mounted on cloth, the cloth on wooden stretcher, framed and glazed
9 x 7.25in. (230 x 183mm).
A RARE ORIGINAL WATERCOLOUR ON VELLUM BY 'THE FINEST DRAWER AND COLOURER IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND' (Leeds Mercury 19 January 1799). Bolton, perhaps the greatest of the self-taught 18th-century English natural history artists, outlined his method of working in a manuscript preface to an album of original flower drawings (now in the Natural History Museum): 'In everyone, I have copied a Natural Flower, the most perfect of its kind that I could procure, and have endeavoured to represent the Attitude or posture of the whole, as well as the particular parts; judging this the likeliest way to represent Nature truly. Certainly it is the duty of everyone, who attempts imitation of this kind, to be as faithfull and just as possible... April ye 5th. AD.1788'.
Bolton, like his famous contemporary Gilbert White (1720-1793), concentrated his broad-based natural history studies on a relatively small area in and around Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. A good field naturalist, he observed and drew insects, fungi, ferns, plants and birds. From the 1770's onwards he made his living as a natural history collector and artist. In addition, Bolton had a number of patrons in the north of England, and his visits to large houses such as Gawthorpe Hall, Nostell Priory, Towneley Hall and Dunkenhalgh Hall were most probably in the capacity of drawing master. He is now best known for his published works on fungi and ferns, and also produced a two volume work on British songbirds
Original botanical drawings by Bolton rarely appear at auction: in the last ten years records show only a small group of six drawings on paper, sold in these rooms, 11 November 1998, lots 14-19.
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