Above: Calves sheltering against golden straw stacks, by Daniel Alexander Williamson (1823-1903). 1866. Below left, verso: Sheep at Twilight.
Both these works are watercolour on paper. 7 3/4 x 10 15/16 inches (19.7 x 27.7 cm). Private collection. Images courtesy of the author.
Williamson's painting style had changed several times over the years but this work in watercolour, Calves sheltering against golden straw stacks, is an early one, before he shifted to his more impressionistic style. Williamson started painting primarily with watercolour in 1865 after being ill for some time. As he could not paint outdoors he had to change to painting indoors, making watercolour a more logical choice of medium. Harry Marillier wrote that during Williamson's long period of sickness following an accident when he was unable to paint he "spent his days looking out of windows upon all the changing lights and seasons of the year, accumulating an intimate knowledge of these phases of nature which he afterwards turned to good account" (239).
The works date from soon after Williamson moved to Broughton-in-Furness. This artist is best remembered today for his Pre-Raphaelite landscapes of the early 1860s with their meticulous detail and brilliant colours. Calves sheltering against golden straw stacks retains the intense colours of his previous Pre-Raphaelite palette, particularly seen in the study of sheep on the verso, but his technique has already started to broaden, without much of the painstaking detail seen in his earlier works in oils such as Morecambe Bay from Warton Crag of 1862. It is still much more detailed, however, than his later loosely handled hazy impressionistic watercolours.
As for Sheep at Twilight, Williamson had a particular fondness for deep greens, purples and mauve as shown in the study on the verso of this watercolour. Williamson made a number of paintings and drawings featuring cattle throughout his career, and sheep too figure prominently in a number of his works.
Bibliography
Marillier, Harry C.: The Liverpool School of Painters. London: John Murray, 1904.
Created 16 August 2024