The Plains of Marathon

Details

John Varley, O.W.S. (1778-1842)
The Plains of Marathon
signed 'J. Varley' (lower right) and inscribed and signed again 'Tumulus of the Persians/who fell/at Marathon/J.Varley.1834' (on the reverse)
pencil and watercolour with scratching out
6 5/8 x 10¼ in. (16.8 x 26 cm.)

Provenance

Possibly George Vaughan, Cumberland Terrace, 1843.
with Spink-Leger, London.

Literature

W. Hauptman, L'Âge d'Or de l'Aquarelle Anglaise 1770-1900, Lausanne, 1999, pp. 96-7, no. 48, illustrated in colour.

Exhibited

Possibly London, Old Watercolour Society, 1843, no. 201, 'Plains of Marathon, from the Tumulus of the Greeks and Persians, looking towards Euboea'.
Lausanne, Fondations de l'Hermitage, L'Âge d'Or de l'Aquarelle Anglaise, 22 January - 24 May 1999, no. 48.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

Lot Essay

A similar watercolour was sold at Sotheby's, London 18 March 1982, lot 127. In 1828 there was also a watercolour exhibited at the O.W.S., no. 255 with the title 'Tumulus of the Greeks, who fell in the battle of Marathon. How sleep the brave who sink to rest,/With all their country's wishes blest!...', possibly an earlier version of the present watercolour. An extract that accompanied the watercolour's entry in the O.W.S. catalogue read 'The mountains look on Marathon and Marathon look on the sea....' taken from Byron's Childe Harold.

While comparisons can be made here with the romantic painting of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) Varley could not have known his work. Here he reveals a romantic sensibility that offers a very different atmosphere from that of his topographical work and is more in keeping with the mood of his later watercolours.

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