Description
An original c.1805 pen & ink drawing, John White Abbott, Achilles at Skyros after Raphael. A remarkably precise ink drawing by John White Abbott (1763-1851) after Raphael. The subject resembles Raphael's fresco subject, Achilles at Skyros, decorating the Loggia of Villa Madama, Rome. This drawing is one a series of linear ink studies by John White Abbott after the Old Masters. Although overwhelming a landscape artist, Abbott is known to have studied Old Master prints, & his figures & animals in his landscape compositions are usually classical in nature rather than freely observed. These ink studies are evidence of Abbott's connoisseurship & his status as a gentleman amateur rather than a professional landscapist. For an example of 'Old Master' animals in a landscape by Abbott, see British Museum no. 1880,0313.22. For a further example of a drawing after an Old Master print see BM 1860,0211.347. An example of an Italianate landscape oil with figures can seen at the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection no. B1976.7.1, as well as a Classical Composition after Annibale Carracci, no. B2013.5. Ink with traces of graphite underdrawing, on thin wove paper laid down on original backing paper. Provenance: Sotheby's sale 21 March 2002. John White Abbott (1763-1851) was born in Exeter, Devon, where he practiced as an apothecary & surgeon. A keen amateur artist, he socialised in the same genteel Exeter circles inhabited by Francis Towne (1739 or 1740-1816), who was a close friend of Abbott's uncle, James White. Abbott took lessons from Towne from a young age & became an important friend & patron of Towne. He closely emulated Towne's style, producing topographical drawings with precise ink outlines & flat & clear washes of colour. The majority of Abbott's subjects were local to his native Devon. in 1791 he made his only extended journey outside the West Country, a sketching tour of Scotland, the Lake District, Lancashire, Derbyshire & Warwickshire, & in 1797 he toured Monmouthshire. Between 1793 & 1812, Abbott exhibited intermittently at the Royal Academy, as an honorary exhibitor, & his oils were more highly praised than those of Towne. But it is said that he never sold a picture, all works remaining in the family & Abbott living the life of a gentleman amateur. Abbott was also a connoisseur of Old Master prints & this study informed the composition & figures that he used in his landscapes. in 1825 Abbott inherited Fordland, a Devon estate, from his uncle James White. From this time on he was able to devote himself solely to drawing. in 1827 he again visited Monmouthshire, & also Gloucestershire & Wiltshire. in 1831 he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Devonshire. His work can be found in numerous public collections, including the British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, & the National Gallery of Scotland. in good condition for its age.Some age toning to the
