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ALBERT GOODWIN, R.W.S. (1845-1932) Lots 57 - 61 Goodwin showed himself to be an artist with a unique vision from an early age, exhibiting his first picture at the Royal Academy when he was just fifteen years old. He grew up during a period that saw the foundation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose beliefs in 'truth to nature' and their promotion of colour and working from nature became highly influential characteristics of Goodwin's work. He remarked in a Diary entry of 1909 that he felt he had 'suffered all my artistic life from having started under Pre-Raphaelite superlatives in colour. They emphasised the need of scenery and painting and rejoicing in colour' (H. Smith, Albert Goodwin R.W.S., 1845-1932, Leigh-on-Sea, 1977, p. 36). At the end of the 1860s Goodwin met John Ruskin (1819-1900), through his mentors Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893) and Arthur Hughes (1832-1915), who was to have an equally, if not more, significant effect on his technique and composition. In 1872 Ruskin invited Goodwin to join him on an expedition to Italy, and Goodwin continued to travel throughout the continent and further afield, until his death in 1932. It was Ruskin who 'bellyragged [Goodwin] into love of form when [he] was getting too content with colour alone;....the pleasure that is to be found in lines which should string a drawing together is almost an unknown quantity in these days of paint and paint only' (Smith, op. cit., p. 24). Much of Goodwin's later work takes on an increasingly ethereal quality as the combination of his use of pen and wash, together with breadth and detail, so repeatedly achieve a quite magical unity. Property from an Estate

Albert Goodwin, R.W.S. (1845-1932)

The flower market in the Piazza delle Erbe, Verona, Italy

Details

Albert Goodwin, R.W.S. (1845-1932)
The flower market in the Piazza delle Erbe, Verona, Italy
signed 'Albert Goodwin.' (lower right) and inscribed 'Verona' (lower left)
pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour, with gum arabic
14½ x 21¼ in. (37.9 x 54 cm.)

Provenance

John Edmondson.
with Richard Haworth, Blackburn.

Exhibited

Blackburn, Corporation Art Gallery, Exhibition of Pictures, April, 1920, no. 101.
Burnley, Town Hall Art Gallery, Exhibition of Pictures, June - September, 1922, no. 27.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Goodwin visited Verona in 1872 in the course of a three-month artistic tour of Italy organised by John Ruskin (1819-1900). Goodwin had been introduced to Ruskin a few years earlier, probably in 1869, and had also become close friends with Ruskin's cousin Joan and her husband Arthur Severn, who were the other members of the 1872 touring party. They visited Verona towards the end of their tour, when they had already travelled from Switzerland down through Pisa and Florence to Rome, and were in the process of journeying back up through the Italian peninsula towards Venice.

The Piazza delle Erbe has always been the focal point of the city of Verona, standing as it does on the site of the Roman forum. The piazza gains its name from the herbs which have been sold for hundreds of years in its market, alongside fruit, vegetables and the flowers after which Goodwin's watercolour is titled.

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