Thomas Charles Leeson Rowbotham (1823-1875) - 1853 Watercolour Wash Day

Description

A fine and delicate watercolour study by Thomas Charles Leeson Rowbotham (1823-1875), capturing the quiet rhythms of life in a coastal community. In the foreground, women wash and hang white linens along the beach, their modest fishermen's cottages forming the heart of the composition. Beyond them, a row of newly built Georgian townhouses rises along the promenade, offering a subtle contrast between humble tradition and emerging prosperity. Finished with refined touches of gouache, this work beautifully balances observation, atmosphere, and social narrative. Signed and dated to the lower edge. On paper.

Condition

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

Size

23 x 33cm (9.1" x 13.0")

Artist Biography

Thomas Charles Leeson Rowbotham was born in 1823, in Dublin. He was known as an Irish watercolour landscape and marine artist, and was the son of the watercolour artist, Thomas Leeson Scrase Rowbotham (1783-1853). He was trained by his father and first did serious work in 1847 on a sketching trip to Wales. His work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and Suffolk Street Gallery and other prestigious galleries of the time, and he was elected an associate of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1848 and a full member in 1851. He succeeded his father as Professor of Drawing at the Royal Naval School, New Cross in Greenwich. They collaborated on The Art of Painting in Watercolours, and he provided the illustrations for his father's work, The Art of Sketching from Nature.