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Lot Essay
The Meet, the largest watercolour Birket Foster ever painted, was purchased by Barnet Lewis in 1903. Lewis formed a highly important collection of the artist's work and many of his watercolours provided H.M. Cundall with the colour illustrations for the original biography of the artist. The Meet was the highlight of Lewis's collection and the first lot in a section of 115 works by Birket Foster, sold in these Rooms on 3 March 1930 (see fig. 2). The price of 900 gns. was an exceptional price for a work of art, at the time.
The exact topography of the watercolour has been traditionally identified as Newlands Corner on the Albury downs in Surrey, not far from Birket Foster's home, The Hill at Witley. Witley was also home to the painter Helen Allingham, R.W.S. (1848-1926) and an artistic community built up around the two artists, including John Dawson Watson (1832-1892) Birket Foster's brother-in-law. The present watercolour was probably inspired by one of Birket Foster's outings with Watson, who was a keen huntsman with the local hunt whilst he was living in Milford.
When it was exhibited at the Royal Water-Colour Society in 1869, both the Art Journal and Athenaeum singled out the watercolour. The the Art Journal critic wrote: 'The place of honour among landscapes has been assigned for size and possibly also for merit to Mr Birket Foster's highly elaborated picture "The Meet"......this large effort in common with smaller works shows exquisite manipulation and an absolute command over detail.' Jan Reynolds notes in her publication on the artist (loc. cit.) that Birket Foster's techniques translated well into the larger format. At the time the artist had been experimenting with painting in oil, something that often changes the handling of an artist's work in watercolour, but this did not happen with Birket Foster, who lost none of the detail and delicacy when he painted on this large scale.
Birket Foster considered The Meet to be one of his most important works and this is born out in its inclusion in a list of 19 works given by Birket Foster to the Berlin Academy on the celebration of his 70th birthday. He was given the title of Honorary Member of The Berlin Academy in 1874 and in 1895 was asked to provide them with a list for publication of what he considered to be his most important works.
Born in North Shields on the Tyne but brought up in Barnet, London Birket Foster was apprenticed to a wood engraver. He took up watercolour painting after his 1852-4 tour of the Rhineland and became a member of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1860. In 1863 he moved to Witley and it was from then on that his most typical watercolours of children engaged in rustic pastimes, such as bird's nesting and blackberrying, were executed.
He 'stands as one of England's most popular landscape draughtsmen and as a painter in water-colour of great distinction' the Dalziel Brothers recalled after the artist's death; while the Daily Graphic (26 December 1906) exclaimed 'Birket Foster produced something new - he was a tête d'école... never approached by any other of his followers or rivals'. Christopher Newall, in his Victorian Watercolours, London, 1987, p. 60, discusses Birket Foster's combination of 'progressive and traditional methods' and praises his 'vibrant colours unified and made tonally harmonious by the virtuosity of his stippled bodycolour technique'.
The Meet will be mentioned in Jan Reynolds entry on Birket Foster in the forthcoming New Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004.
We are grateful to Jan Reynolds for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
The exact topography of the watercolour has been traditionally identified as Newlands Corner on the Albury downs in Surrey, not far from Birket Foster's home, The Hill at Witley. Witley was also home to the painter Helen Allingham, R.W.S. (1848-1926) and an artistic community built up around the two artists, including John Dawson Watson (1832-1892) Birket Foster's brother-in-law. The present watercolour was probably inspired by one of Birket Foster's outings with Watson, who was a keen huntsman with the local hunt whilst he was living in Milford.
When it was exhibited at the Royal Water-Colour Society in 1869, both the Art Journal and Athenaeum singled out the watercolour. The the Art Journal critic wrote: 'The place of honour among landscapes has been assigned for size and possibly also for merit to Mr Birket Foster's highly elaborated picture "The Meet"......this large effort in common with smaller works shows exquisite manipulation and an absolute command over detail.' Jan Reynolds notes in her publication on the artist (loc. cit.) that Birket Foster's techniques translated well into the larger format. At the time the artist had been experimenting with painting in oil, something that often changes the handling of an artist's work in watercolour, but this did not happen with Birket Foster, who lost none of the detail and delicacy when he painted on this large scale.
Birket Foster considered The Meet to be one of his most important works and this is born out in its inclusion in a list of 19 works given by Birket Foster to the Berlin Academy on the celebration of his 70th birthday. He was given the title of Honorary Member of The Berlin Academy in 1874 and in 1895 was asked to provide them with a list for publication of what he considered to be his most important works.
Born in North Shields on the Tyne but brought up in Barnet, London Birket Foster was apprenticed to a wood engraver. He took up watercolour painting after his 1852-4 tour of the Rhineland and became a member of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1860. In 1863 he moved to Witley and it was from then on that his most typical watercolours of children engaged in rustic pastimes, such as bird's nesting and blackberrying, were executed.
He 'stands as one of England's most popular landscape draughtsmen and as a painter in water-colour of great distinction' the Dalziel Brothers recalled after the artist's death; while the Daily Graphic (26 December 1906) exclaimed 'Birket Foster produced something new - he was a tête d'école... never approached by any other of his followers or rivals'. Christopher Newall, in his Victorian Watercolours, London, 1987, p. 60, discusses Birket Foster's combination of 'progressive and traditional methods' and praises his 'vibrant colours unified and made tonally harmonious by the virtuosity of his stippled bodycolour technique'.
The Meet will be mentioned in Jan Reynolds entry on Birket Foster in the forthcoming New Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004.
We are grateful to Jan Reynolds for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.