Richard Westall

Richard Westall (1765-1836) RA Early 19th Century Watercolour, Mother and Child

Early 19th Century

A delicate Victorian watercolour, titled Mother & Child. The unfinished study depicts a seated mother and her young son looking down at the ground. With provenance also written to th...

A heartwarming sepia study of a shepherdess comforting her young baby. Well-presented in a contemporary gilt-effect frame. Unsigned. On paper.

Attribuetd to Eugène Devéria (1805-1865) La Famille heureuse (The Happy Family) Watercolor on paper 23 x 18 cm In quite good condition : a small tear i...

RICHARD WESTALL, RA (1765-1836) Cupid Sleeping; from a poem of Mrs Robinson - The Duchess of Devonshire Discovers the Sleeping Cupid Watercolour on paper, oval 36 by 44.5 cm., 14 ¼ by 18 in. (frame size 55 by 66 cm., 21 ¾ by 26 in.) Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1792, no.448. Richard Westall was bon in Reepham, near Norwich. Initially apprenticed to a London silver engraving he began studying at the Royal Academy Schools from 1785 and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1784 and 1836. Westall became an Associate member of the Royal Academy in 1792 and a full member in 1794. Westall painted in both oil and watercolour, his works being romantic and neoclassical in style. He contributing to both Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery and Fuseli’s Milton Gallery and was also a prolific book illustrator of both fiction and poetry including works by Sir Walter Scott and Byron, whose portrait he also painted. For a time he was also art master to the young Princess Victoria. This is probably Westall’s 1792 Royal Academy exhibit (no.448). The subject was inspired by the poem Cupid Sleeping by the poetess-actress Mary Darby Robinson, which had been published in the previous year. The poem was dedicated to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and the picture show the Duchess discovering the sleeping cupid who she then relieves of his bow and arrows. Mrs Robinson was not only the Duchess’s protégée but also the first public mistress of the Prince of Wales. William Nutter’s engraving of Westall’s picture was also dedicated to the Duchess of Devonshire. Close in a woodbine's tangled shade, The blooming god asleep was laid; His brows with mossy roses crown'd; His golden darts lay scatter'd round; To shade his auburn, curled head, A purple canopy was spread, Which gently with the breezes play'd, And shed around a soften'd shade. Upon his downy smiling cheek, Adorned with many a "dimple sleek," Beam'd glowing health and tender blisses, His coral lip...