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Lot Essay
This picture shows Castle Cornet, Guernsey's ancient harbour fortress, which stood guard over the island's capital St. Peter Port from the thirteenth until the nineteenth centuries. The castle originally stood on an isolated rocky outcrop until it was connected to the mainland by a breakwater and bridge, and was later superceded by Fort George, on the hill overlooking it to the south of the town, in the mid-19th century.
Another version of this composition, of the same format and signed by the artist, is in the National Collection (see Concise Catalogue of Oil Paintings in the National Maritime Museum, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, 1988, BHC 1781 (a), p. 437, illustrated). Whitcombe exhibited a picture entitled 'A Storm, Castle Cornet, Guernsey' at the Royal Academy in 1796, no. 234, which may be either the painting offered in this catalogue or the version in the National Maritime Museum.
Another version of this composition, of the same format and signed by the artist, is in the National Collection (see Concise Catalogue of Oil Paintings in the National Maritime Museum, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, 1988, BHC 1781 (a), p. 437, illustrated). Whitcombe exhibited a picture entitled 'A Storm, Castle Cornet, Guernsey' at the Royal Academy in 1796, no. 234, which may be either the painting offered in this catalogue or the version in the National Maritime Museum.