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Auction archive: Lot number 119

William Page (1794-1872) | Album of 58 watercolours of Turkish, Greek, Swiss and Italian views and figure studies

Estimate
£20,000 - £30,000
ca. US$27,772 - US$41,658
Price realised:
£52,920
ca. US$73,485
Auction archive: Lot number 119

William Page (1794-1872) | Album of 58 watercolours of Turkish, Greek, Swiss and Italian views and figure studies

Estimate
£20,000 - £30,000
ca. US$27,772 - US$41,658
Price realised:
£52,920
ca. US$73,485
Beschreibung:

William Page (1794-1872) Album of fifty-eight watercolours of Turkish, Greek, Swiss and Italian views and figure studies. Oblong folio (287 x 413mm.), 58 watercolours or brown washes (various sizes from 134 x 184mm. to 177 x 269mm.), of which 22 SIGNED, most inscribed with title on the sheet or mount, 57 mounted on thick cream paper, recto only, one mounted on lower pastedown, inscription/bookplate mounted on upper pastedown in gilt and black ink in Ottoman Turkish one line reading 'William Page', contemporary dark maroon morocco, sides with decorative blindstamped decoration, spine in five compartments with raised bands, gilt edges, upper cover lettered in gilt ' SKETCHES BY WM. PAGE ESQR.", extremities slightly rubbed A PREVIOUSLY UNRECORDED ALBUM OF WATERCOLOURS BY WILLIAM PAGE (1794-1872) OF HIS EXTENDED TOUR TO GREECE AND TURKEY VIA SWITZERLAND, including Geneva, Pisa, Corfu, Zante, Ithaca, Athens and Constantinople. Page was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy in 1812-13 and exhibited there from 1816. Around 1817, Page left London for an extended tour to Greece and Turkey via Switzerland, with Lady Ruthven (1789–1885) and her brother William Campbell (1793–1821), who were cousins of Lady Elgin’s and thus would have heard at first hand the Elgins' accounts of their time in the region. Page is recorded in Athens in 1818. The Italian artist Giovanni Battista Lusieri wrote to his patron Lord Elgin from Athens on 7 May 1819 that Page `has much talent…. and has made a quantity of drawings which will bring him much honour’ (Elgin Family archive, quoted in Aidan Weston-Lewis, Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape, 2012, p.185, note 82). Page continued to Constantinople where he arrived in May 1821. In the spring of 1821 the Greek war of Independence broke out, which cut Page’s trip short. Views in the album of Corfu, Zante and Ithaca suggest they travelled home via the west coast of Greece. Campbell died in Corfu in the summer of 1821 having contracted a fever. They then likely crossed to Southern Italy, perhaps visiting Naples and Pisa (see drawings in the album) on their way north. This previously unrecorded album is a fascinating record of Page’s trip. Apart from the many Greek and Turkish views, it gives us an insight into Page’s route there through Switzerland which has never previously been documented. The grouping of subjects suggest that he travelled one way on a more northern route via Fribourg, Berne, lake Brienz, the Lauerzer Zee and Engelberg, and perhaps on the way back via the Simplon Pass, the Valais Region and Geneva. Interest in Greece and the Ottoman Empire increased in Britain during the 18th century and amongst the early pioneers in search of material were James ‘Athenian’ Stuart (1713–1788) and Nicholas Revett (1721–1804) who visited Greece in 1751. The results of this trip were published in four volumes, illustrated with carefully measured architectural drawings, between 1762 and 1816. By the early 19th century, numerous artists, architects and travellers were visiting the region and such was the interest that the future Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, following his four year tour of Europe between 1810 and 1814, when he spent much of his time in Athens, founded the Athenian Club, as a place for like-minded individuals to meet. There are examples of William Page's work in the British Museum, Coventry Art Gallery, and the Searight collection at V&A, where there are costume studies from Turkey, etc. LIST OF THE WATERCOLOURS IN THIS ALBUM: 1. Three Women at a Well at Berne, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Berne’. 2. Women in a Market, Geneva, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Geneva’3. Women in a Market, Fribourg, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Fribourg’4. Women in a Market, Berne, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Berne’5. Figures in a Market, Berne, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Berne’6. Turks

Auction archive: Lot number 119
Auction:
Datum:
27 Apr 2021 - 13 May 2021
Auction house:
Sotheby's
London
Beschreibung:

William Page (1794-1872) Album of fifty-eight watercolours of Turkish, Greek, Swiss and Italian views and figure studies. Oblong folio (287 x 413mm.), 58 watercolours or brown washes (various sizes from 134 x 184mm. to 177 x 269mm.), of which 22 SIGNED, most inscribed with title on the sheet or mount, 57 mounted on thick cream paper, recto only, one mounted on lower pastedown, inscription/bookplate mounted on upper pastedown in gilt and black ink in Ottoman Turkish one line reading 'William Page', contemporary dark maroon morocco, sides with decorative blindstamped decoration, spine in five compartments with raised bands, gilt edges, upper cover lettered in gilt ' SKETCHES BY WM. PAGE ESQR.", extremities slightly rubbed A PREVIOUSLY UNRECORDED ALBUM OF WATERCOLOURS BY WILLIAM PAGE (1794-1872) OF HIS EXTENDED TOUR TO GREECE AND TURKEY VIA SWITZERLAND, including Geneva, Pisa, Corfu, Zante, Ithaca, Athens and Constantinople. Page was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy in 1812-13 and exhibited there from 1816. Around 1817, Page left London for an extended tour to Greece and Turkey via Switzerland, with Lady Ruthven (1789–1885) and her brother William Campbell (1793–1821), who were cousins of Lady Elgin’s and thus would have heard at first hand the Elgins' accounts of their time in the region. Page is recorded in Athens in 1818. The Italian artist Giovanni Battista Lusieri wrote to his patron Lord Elgin from Athens on 7 May 1819 that Page `has much talent…. and has made a quantity of drawings which will bring him much honour’ (Elgin Family archive, quoted in Aidan Weston-Lewis, Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape, 2012, p.185, note 82). Page continued to Constantinople where he arrived in May 1821. In the spring of 1821 the Greek war of Independence broke out, which cut Page’s trip short. Views in the album of Corfu, Zante and Ithaca suggest they travelled home via the west coast of Greece. Campbell died in Corfu in the summer of 1821 having contracted a fever. They then likely crossed to Southern Italy, perhaps visiting Naples and Pisa (see drawings in the album) on their way north. This previously unrecorded album is a fascinating record of Page’s trip. Apart from the many Greek and Turkish views, it gives us an insight into Page’s route there through Switzerland which has never previously been documented. The grouping of subjects suggest that he travelled one way on a more northern route via Fribourg, Berne, lake Brienz, the Lauerzer Zee and Engelberg, and perhaps on the way back via the Simplon Pass, the Valais Region and Geneva. Interest in Greece and the Ottoman Empire increased in Britain during the 18th century and amongst the early pioneers in search of material were James ‘Athenian’ Stuart (1713–1788) and Nicholas Revett (1721–1804) who visited Greece in 1751. The results of this trip were published in four volumes, illustrated with carefully measured architectural drawings, between 1762 and 1816. By the early 19th century, numerous artists, architects and travellers were visiting the region and such was the interest that the future Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, following his four year tour of Europe between 1810 and 1814, when he spent much of his time in Athens, founded the Athenian Club, as a place for like-minded individuals to meet. There are examples of William Page's work in the British Museum, Coventry Art Gallery, and the Searight collection at V&A, where there are costume studies from Turkey, etc. LIST OF THE WATERCOLOURS IN THIS ALBUM: 1. Three Women at a Well at Berne, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Berne’. 2. Women in a Market, Geneva, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Geneva’3. Women in a Market, Fribourg, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Fribourg’4. Women in a Market, Berne, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Berne’5. Figures in a Market, Berne, Switzerland, watercolour, inscribed on mount ‘Berne’6. Turks

Auction archive: Lot number 119
Auction:
Datum:
27 Apr 2021 - 13 May 2021
Auction house:
Sotheby's
London
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