Lot 181: JONATHAN SKELTON

CROYDON ? 1755 - 1759 ROME LORD TYRAWLEY'S HOUSE UPON GREENWICH HILL Watercolour heightened with pen and grey ink on laid paper, unframed; signed and inscribed verso: Lord Tyrawley's House upon Greenwich Hill - / Skelton / No 5 237 by 555 mm

R. Pierce, 'Jonathan Skelton and his Watercolours', Walpole Society, Glasgow 1956-57, p. 14

Probably Thomas Blofeld, of Hoveton House, Norfolk (b. 1753); by family descent to Thomas Calthope Blofeld, of Hoveton House, Norfolk (1838-1908); his Executor's sale, London, Hodgson's, 30 April 1909, lot 602

Skelton created this extensive panoramic landscape in 1757. An extremely rare survival, this watercolour is one of only three views of Greenwich that the artist is known to have made. Another, entitled Greenwich Park, A Capriccio is now at Tate Britain (T08254), while the whereabouts of a third In Greenwich Park is unknown. Until its re-emergence earlier this year, the present work was also presumed lost. It has not been offered at auction since Thomas Blofeld’s sale at Hodgson’s, London on the 30thApril 1909.