Lot 43: Joseph West (fl. 1825-1874)

Joseph West (fl. 1825-1874)
An album of four hundred and fifty-nine studies after antique, mediaeval and Renaissance sculpture, and after paintings by Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, other Florentine, Roman and Venetian painters and Rembrandt, Poussin and others
many briefly inscribed
pencil and grey or brown wash, eight with watercolour
13¼ x 9½ in. (33.6 x 24.1 cm.); and smaller; the album 21 5/8 x 17½ x 3 in. (52.4 x 44.5 x 7.6 cm.) overall

Lord Northwick; Christie's, London, 25 May 1965, lot 191, where purchased by the present owner.

Property from the Collection of The Late Edward Croft-Murray, C.B.E.
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Joseph West is best known for his friendship with Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828). A drawing of Rouen by Bonington, sold at Bonham's in 1966, bore a note on the reverse saying that it had once been the property of 'Joseph West the artist, friend and companion of Bonington'. The same note established dates of activity for West from at least 1825 until 1874 (M. Pointon, The Bonington Circle: English Watercolour and Anglo-French Landscape 1790-1855, Brighton, 1985, p. 98). West may have also known Bonington's distinguished patron John Lewis Brown (see lot 42), because Pointon records a portrait of Joseph West, by Bonington, among the works in Brown's sale (op. cit.).

A remarkable two-day sale of drawings by West took place in these Rooms on 6-7 June 1834, when the artist was still alive. The lots were described as 'the Valuable and Highly Interesting Collection of Studies... made by Joseph West, Esq., During a Visit to the Continent; Comprising finished Pictures and Drawings in Water Colours, and Pencil Sketches, from the most celebrated Works of the great Masters in Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris, and in the first Galleries in this Country; forming a beautiful Series in which the colouring and spirit of the originals have been admirably preserved'. Since the listed works share so many similarities with the drawings in the present album, it is highly likely that the album was put together with sketches purchased at this sale.

A bookplate in the front of the album reveals that an early owner, if not the compiler, was John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick (1770-1859). Having spent his youth travelling on the Continent, where he befriended William Hamilton (1730-1803), Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) and Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Northwick assembled a highly distinguished collection of Old Masters, miniatures, prints and coins. He may have been drawn to the present sketches as a series of aide-memoires to help him recall the works of art he had seen during his European tour. Lord Northwick bought seven lots at the sale, all on the first day. He may have already owned the other sketches, or perhaps purchased them later: a total of 53 lots, including 31 of the pencil and watercolour sketches, were purchased by 'Rodd', possibly a dealer.