Beautiful European Topographic Watercolour of A Castle on The Rhine 19th C. Likely by William Callow RWS {Royal Watercolour Society} (1812-1908) Court Painting Tutor to The Children of King Louis Phillipe of France

In the British romantic landscape style, beautifully executed with fine skill, not far removed in quality by the greatest exponant of the art of watercolours, Joseph Mallord Willam Turner who is said laid the foundation for Impressionism. This is a beautiful Victorian English School watercolour, superbly executed. It is titled but unsigned, possibly by William Callow 1812-1908 {if not, by one of his esteemed contemporaries}

The topographical tradition describes a long-established tradition of painting largely or entirely concerned with specific places on the earth and their topography.

In his article "The Topographical Tradition", Bruce MacEvoy states that the topographical tradition is rooted in 18th-century British watercolour painting intended to serve practical as well as aesthetic purposes: "At the beginning of the 18th century, the topographical watercoulor was primarily used as an objective record of an actual place in an era before photography."

William Callow (1812–1908) was an English landscape painter, engraver and water colourist.

Callow was born in Greenwich on 28 July 1812. He was apprenticed to the artist Copley Fielding, where he learnt the technique of plein air sketching. He went on to study under Theodore and Thales Fielding, where he learnt to colour prints and make aquatints, and was taught water colour painting between 1825 and 1827.
In 1829 Thales Fielding found him work as an engraver in Paris, where he worked alongside his friend Charles Bentley. While in the French capital he was encouraged by Thomas Shotter Boys to take up watercolours again. After exhibiting a watercolour of Richmond Hill in the Paris Salon of 1831, he was offered a job teaching the family of King Louis Philippe I of France, and for several years gave lessons to the Duc de Nemours and Princess Clémentine, while his own works rapidly gained popularity in England.This was helped by his influence over Francois, prince de Joinville during the turbulence of the July Revolution. Briefly the 'Callow youth' was plunged into a platonic love affair that went unrequited with the darling Princess Clementine.

Elected a member of the Old Water-Colour Society, Callow returned to London in 1841 and began to paint larger pictures, moving away from the more "dashing" style of his earlier smaller works. He travelled extensively in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, had a large number of pupils, and enjoyed favour with the royal family. He married one of his students, the artist and composer Harriet Anne Smart, in 1846.

He kept detailed diaries of his early travels, and just before his death, his sight having failed, he dictated an autobiography. In 1855 he moved to Great Missenden, in Buckinghamshire, where he died in 1908

He made two major trips to Germany to paint such subjects, firstly in 1852, and 50 years later in 1902 when aged 90.

7 X 9.5 inches, Frame 18.25 x 15.25 inches

Code: 16919