Attrib. Thomas Hartley Cromek (1809-1873) - 1834 Watercolour Delphi, Greece

Description

A delightful early 19th-century graphite and watercolour study of agricultural equipment. Inscribed with the location 'Delphi and the date 1834', Cromek was known to have been touring the picturesque scenery of Italy and Greece from 1831 until 1849. A second inscription (a copy of the first) is positioned closer to the lower edge of the paper. On wove laid to backing card.

Condition

The condition is typical for a picture of this age including some discolouration and foxing.

Size

9 x 13cm (3.5" x 5.1")

Artist Biography

Cromek was born on 8 August 1809, the son of the engraver Robert Hartley Cromek. He was educated at Enoch Harrison's school in Wakefield; he then attended the Moravian School at Fulneck, and to the Grammar School at Wakefield, before he eventually returned to Harrison.

He had his first lessons in art from James Hunter, a portrait painter at Wakefield, but in 1826 he went to Leeds where he studied landscape painting under Joseph Rhodes, an artist of considerable ability, and also taught himself anatomical drawing.

In 1830 he decided to go to Italy to study the great masters. He passed through Belgium, the Rhineland, Switzerland, and Florence, and at length reached Rome, where he soon attracted attention by the excellence of his drawings and his careful colouring. In 1860 he was unanimously elected an Associate of the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours, when he retired to Wakefield, where he died, after a long and painful illness, in 1873. His drawings, which are chiefly to be found in the royal and private collections, are much esteemed for the beauty of their colouring and their truthfulness to nature.