George RICHMOND

Dated 1854 and likely drawn on a page from a small sketchbook, this view of dunes by the sea was probably drawn in September or October of that year, when Richmond is known to have taken a holiday in the town of Walton; probably the small seaside resort of Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, on the east coast of England. The present sheet would appear to depict part of the Naze, a marshy headland projecting into the North Sea, just to the north of the town, which today contains a small nature reserve. This landscape sketch is comparable, in stylistic terms, with a handful of other watercolours by the artist, such as a study of a large tree which remained in the possession of Richmond’s descendants until 2001, or a view of Norbury Woods, Surrey, of 1860.