Bernard Lens III (1682-1740)
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Bernard Lens III (1682-1740)

An album of ten drawings of Wookey Hole, Mendip Hills, Somerset

Details
Bernard Lens III (1682-1740)
An album of ten drawings of Wookey Hole, Mendip Hills, Somerset
inscribed 'Several Views/Taken by the Life/by Bernard Lens.' (on the frontispiece within a sculpted cartouche) each page inscribed and numbered variously, 'A Prospect of Wokey[sic] Hole', 'A View of the Entrance into Wokey hole', 'The First View within Wokey hole' (a), 'The Second View in Wokey Hole', 'The Third View in Wokey hole', 'The Fourth View in Wokey Hole' (b), 'A View of The Hall within Wokey Hole', 'A View of the Wonderfull [sic] cistern within Wokey Hole' (c), 'A Continuation of the Same Room' (d), 'The Furthest View within Wokey hole' (lower centre, in the margin) and further inscribed with contents list
pencil, pen and black ink and grey wash, within the artist's pen and black ink border, each with unidentified fragmentary watermark
11 x 15 in. (28 x 38 cm.)
Provenance
Towneley sale; Sothebys, London, 1883, catalogue untraced, possibly lot 91.
W. Towneley Mitford.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Bernard Lens III was a miniaturist and drawing master. Among his pupils were the Princesses Mary and Louisa, Horace Walpole and William, Duke of Cumberland. He was Limner to both George I and II. His work includes grey wash topographical views of London, Herefordshire, Bristol and Somerset. He was also a successful copyist in watercolour of the works of Rubens and Van Dyke.

The caves of Wookey Hole have been famous since Roman times. Carved out by the River Axe, the caverns penetrate deep into the Mendip Hills. The present album is a very early document recording the experience of visting the caves. The watercolours anticipate the taste for the sublime and the picturesque that would gather momentum throughout the rest of the 18th Century, as gentle folk ventured out into the wilds of Britain's landscape to experience nature first-hand. The poet, Alexander Pope, is recorded as visiting the caves around 1739 where he had several stalagtites blasted from the caves to use as decoration in the grotto he was building under his villa in Twickenham.

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