Autumn Evening – Slowly Falls the Shade of Evening, by Daniel Alexander Williamson (1823-1903). Watercolour on paper. 13 1/2 x 20 inches (34.5 x 50.8 cm). Collection of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, accession no. WAG 3235. Bequeathed to the gallery by James Smith in 1923. Image courtesy of the Walker Art Gallery reproduced for purposes of non-commercial research.
This work epitomises Williamson's late style. By 1865 he had primarily moved to working in watercolour, which lent itself to softly dispersed light, and to creating an almost other-wordly atmosphere. In the decades following the 1860s Williamson's technique became even looser and more fluid in which the landscape forms are almost totally dissolved, as in this example with its misty impressionistic appearance. Williamson sketched his landscape subjects with freedom and spontaneity having discovered that watercolour could produce broad effects of light and atmosphere. This technique created a natural and effortless feel to the composition. In this moody watercolour he reproduces the light effects of a misty early evening during the autumn. A solitary figure stands on a summit, surrounded by trees, and overlooking the valley below. A row of purple-blue hills is seen in the distance.
Christopher Newall has discussed Williamson's watercolour technique:
If at first his drawn subjects remained careful and literal representations of the physical world, within a short period he took to sketching landscape subjects with freedom and spontaneity, finding that the medium lent itself to effects of suffused light and ethereal atmosphere that the painter was then seeking. He experimented with a technique that involved placing patches of strong colour on to the moist surface of the sheet, then allowing the different hues to blend together and coalesce…. Williamson's watercolours are remarkable for their effects of intense luminosity and textures that are most pleasing for their spontaneous and uncrafted feel [233]
Harry Marillier had these final thoughts on Williamson's career as an artist: "Whatever other estimate one may form from an examination of his many phases, it must be allowed that his work throughout is original and highly poetic in feeling. He seemed to think in colour and see nature from this point of view rather than of form, much as some musicians associate colour with tone" (240).
Bibliography
Autumn Evening – Slowly Falls the Shade of Evening. National Museums Liverpool. Web. 16 August 2024.
Marillier, Harry C.: The Liverpool School of Painters. London: John Murray, 1904.
Staley, Allen and Christopher Newall. Pre-Raphaelite Vision. Truth to Nature. London: Tate Publishing, 2004.
Created 16 August 2024