Peter DE WINT

Peter De Wint’s relatively rare still life subjects – usually comprised of jugs and bottles of the sort found in a country kitchen - are often difficult to date. While they have generally been regarded as youthful works from early in his career, the present sheet, which is dated 1847, suggests that the artist continued to engage in the practice of still life painting almost until the end of his life. It has also been suggested that some of the artist’s still life subjects may have been done as exemplars for his students. As one of his pupils, John Mayer Heathcote, described De Wint’s method of composing still life compositions to an early biographer, ‘He would take any convenient objects he could find in the room and set them in a group on the table, with a towel or other white cloth carelessly thrown against them.’

As a modern scholar has noted of De Wint, ‘His still-lives, which, like his penchant for the panoramic landscape, suggest his Dutch ancestry, are among his most accomplished works…they appear to have been done largely for his own satisfaction, or as teaching studies, as no such subjects appear among his exhibited works, nor are any included in his wife’s list of sold works, except for those sold to the Royal Dublin Society [in 1843] for the use of their students.’ Furthermore, as has been noted elsewhere, ‘De Wint’s still life compositions, which generally feature jugs, bottles and pails that might be found in a simple country kitchen, have a unique place in the history of early nineteenth century English watercolour painting.’

The present sheet was one of a number of fine works by Peter De Wint in the collection of the art dealer Cyril Fry (1918-2010).