(London 1747–1801) Cowherds and cattle by a river in the mountains of Glen Molaur, Kilkenny/Ireland, oil on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm, framed,

Provenance: Coll. Sir Hugh Seely Bt., Brook House/Isle of Wight; Christie’s auction, London, 16.05.1930, lot 157 (as ‘Potter’, A River Scene with Cattle on the Bank and Figures Bathing).

Literature: William Roberts, Francis Wheatley R. A., His Life and Works, with a Catalogue of his engraved Pictures, London 1910, p. 49.

Illustration: Thomas Milton, Collection of Select Views from the different Seats of the Nobility and Gentry in the Kingdom of Ireland. The freely drawn, impasto oil sketch offered here is probably a preliminary drawing for one of the views produced in the 1780s, published in 1793 by Thomas Milton of London as one in a series of views of Ireland. Wheatley, who was one of the best known portrait and landscape painters of his time and a member of the Royal Academy, travelled around the island for his Anglo-Irish aristocratic patron at this period, producing a series of drawings, watercolours and oil sketches depicting the most important stately homes and their surroundings. The artist's visit to Glen Molaur and the sketches of 1 March 1781 are featured in Roberts’ listing of the artist's engravings. For the sake of topographical accuracy, the engravings were incised in mirror image into the plate, as was often the case in the reproductive graphics of the 18th century, so that when printed they were identical to the painted or drawn original and were not reversed. A comparable oil sketch of an almost identical size was sold by Christie’s, London, on 7 May 2009.

Provenance: Coll. Sir Hugh Seely Bt., Brook House/Isle of Wight; Christie’s auction, London, 16.05.1930, lot 157 (as ‘Potter’, A River Scene with Cattle on the Bank and Figures Bathing). Literaturee: William Roberts, Francis Wheatley R. A., His Life