Lot 52: William Roxby Beverley (Richmond 1811-1889 Hampstead)

William Roxby Beverley (Richmond 1811-1889 Hampstead)
Making for port, close-reefed foresail, heavy sea
signed and dated 'W.R. Beverley/1867' (lower left)
pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour and with scratching out, on paper
25 3/8 x 33 3/8 in. (64.4 x 84.8 cm.)

London, Royal Academy, 1865, no. 648 as 'Making for Port - Close-Reefed Foresail, Heavy Sea'.
London, Walker's Galleries, 6 March 1953, no. 20.

Anonymous sale; Bonham's, London, 18 November 2003, no. 115.
Anonymous sale; Tennants Auctions, Yorkshire, 20-22 April 2005, lot 931.
with Abbott and Holder, London, August 2005, no. 369, where purchased by the present owner.

WILLIAM ROXBY BEVERLEY (1811-1889)
Lots 52-55

Beverley was descended from one of the oldest theatrical families in the North of England, and at the start of his career it was as a painter of scenery in the theatres of London that he was introduced to landscape painting, becoming one of the finest scenery painters of his time. Through this beginning, Beverley developed his own style on a smaller scale, influenced firstly by Clarkson Stanfield, who had also started out as a scene-painter (1793-1867), with whom he went on sketching tours, and secondly by Bonington (1802-1828), from whom he drew inspiration for subject matter and technique. Beverley began exhibiting landscape watercolours infrequently from 1831 onwards, but then regularly at the Royal Academy between 1865 and 1880.