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拍品专文
Cotman's most ambitious publishing project was The Architectural Antiquities of Normandy, for which he executed several hundred drawings in the course of three tours of Normandy, in 1817, 1818 and 1820, tours that were inspired (though not wholly funded) by Cotman's Norfolk patron Dawson Turner.
The Abbatial House does not appear in the Architectural Antiquities, but it is one of Cotman's grandest subjects. He is reported to have 'thought most highly' of the several different Abbatial House watercolours he executed between 1824 and 1831. The house had been built around 1520 by Antoine Boyer, Abbot of St Ouen from 1491. Cotman never saw the building as it had been sold in 1816 and demolished the following year.
Five versions of Cotman's Abbatial House are known, although the authorship of one, the version in the Victoria and Albert Museum, has been questioned. There is also an upright watercolour of one end only of the building, showing the oriel window projection and turret. The four non-contentious examples of the whole building may represent the four pictures Cotman exhibited in his own lifetime at the Old Water-Colour Society (1825, no. 105; 1831, no. 105) and the Norwich Society of Artists (1824, no. 94; 1829, no. 132). One of these four versions, that in the Norwich Castle Museum, shows the tower and main entrance to the Abbatial House on the left; it is dated 182(?), the last digit being indistinct. The three other versions show the image in reverse: a watercolour was sold at Sotheby's on 10 July 1986, lot 133, dated '1824/5'; a version in the Denver Art Museum, Colorado; and the present watercolour.
The Abbatial House does not appear in the Architectural Antiquities, but it is one of Cotman's grandest subjects. He is reported to have 'thought most highly' of the several different Abbatial House watercolours he executed between 1824 and 1831. The house had been built around 1520 by Antoine Boyer, Abbot of St Ouen from 1491. Cotman never saw the building as it had been sold in 1816 and demolished the following year.
Five versions of Cotman's Abbatial House are known, although the authorship of one, the version in the Victoria and Albert Museum, has been questioned. There is also an upright watercolour of one end only of the building, showing the oriel window projection and turret. The four non-contentious examples of the whole building may represent the four pictures Cotman exhibited in his own lifetime at the Old Water-Colour Society (1825, no. 105; 1831, no. 105) and the Norwich Society of Artists (1824, no. 94; 1829, no. 132). One of these four versions, that in the Norwich Castle Museum, shows the tower and main entrance to the Abbatial House on the left; it is dated 182(?), the last digit being indistinct. The three other versions show the image in reverse: a watercolour was sold at Sotheby's on 10 July 1986, lot 133, dated '1824/5'; a version in the Denver Art Museum, Colorado; and the present watercolour.