Lot 177: Louis Bélanger 1756 - 1816 , Windsor Castle, Seen from the Eton side of the Thames Gouache on paper laid down on panel

Signed Louis Bélanger inscribed Le romain and dated 1796 (lower left) Gouache on paper laid down on panel

measurements 29 1/4 by 43 in. alternate measurements 74.2 by 109.2 cm

(Sale: Sotheby's, London, November 27, 2003, lot 247)
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

In the present watercolor Belanger records the appearance of Windsor Castle in 1796. The last major refurbishment of the castle had been undertaken by Charles II more than a century earlier and even at this date, its appearance still reflected its medieval origins. For much of the eighteenth century the castle was not used as a Royal residence and by 1776, when George III decided to start using it again, it was in a somewhat decayed condition. The King engaged James Wyatt to undertake a certain amount of restoration and improvement, principally to St. George's Chapel and to the north and east ranges of the Upper Ward, but it was only when George IV hired Wyatt's nephew, Sir James Wyatville, that a major renovation programme really began. Between 1823 and 1840 Wyatville totally overhauled the castle, harmonising the previously rather disparate architecture and giving it the overall profile and appearance that it still has today.
At least two other versions of this Windsor view by Belanger are recorded; both are approximately half the size of the present work. One was sold at Christie's on 22nd June 1936, lot 25. The other, painted for the Russian Ambassador, Prince Polignac, in 1797 and paired with a view of Old Richmond Bridge, was sold in these Rooms on 14th April 1994, lot 374.
Belanger was widely travelled and made a speciality of foreign and exotic views. A series of four gouaches of Jamaican views, dated 1795 and 1796, were sold in these Rooms on 22nd October 1982. He worked extensively in England and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790 and 1797. In 1798 he was appointed Court Painter in Stockhom, where he died in 1816