About this lot

Description

William Lionel Wyllie, RA (British, 1851-1931) Seascape, Medway inscribed to the reverse in pencil "This is a drawing made by W L Wyllie RA near the mouth of the Medway / I was with him at the time" and indistinctly signed with initials watercolour on paper 26.50 x 45.50cm (10 x 18in)
Provenance: Private collection, London Other Notes: Widely regarded as the leading British marine artist of his time, Wyllie excelled at watercolour painting - although he is much remembered for his mastery of the etching technique. Son of a genre painter and a singer, he grew up in London, but spent much time in Wimereux, a coastal village near Boulogne, France. It was there that he started making sketches and paintings of the French coast and local fisher-folk. Having settled down in London with his wife in 1879, he established his reputation as a marine painter - he had five solo shows at the Fine Art Society in 1883. A year later, he moved with his family to Gillingham House, near Chatham, but also rented a house in Rochester, Kent. Wyllie kept his boats on the foreshore of the Medway at the end of the garden and made frequent painting trips to Portsmouth, Northern France and Holland. It was at this time that he forged a good relationship with the Royal Navy at nearby Chatham. The present watercolour appears to be inscribed by one of Wyllie's friends who accompanied him on one such trip.

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