Aberdeen from the South

  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Government Art Collection
  • About the artist
    George Smith of Chichester, a prolific painter of landscapes, was born in Chichester to a man who combined the trades of baker and cooper with the calling of a Baptist minister. His brothers, William and John, were also landscape painters; George often collaborated on works with his brother John. George Smith exhibited at the Society of Arts in London during the 1760s and early 1770s (he won prizes there in 1760, 1761 and 1763) and at the Royal Academy. His paintings were popular and many of them found a wider audience through the medium of engraving. Before he specialised in landscape painting, Smith painted still lifes; and in addition to practising as an artist, he was also a poet and a musician.
    John Clark, watercolourist and aquatint engraver, specialised in topographical, sporting and marine views. He remains something of a mystery today as virtually nothing is known of his life. This may be partly the result of his not uncommon name. Clark toured Scotland during the summer of 1823, making sketches for his series of aquatint prints ‘Views in Scotland’ (published in parts in 1824-25, under the patronage of George IV). Other works apparently in the same hand and presumed to be by John Clark are alternately signed ‘J. Clark’ and ‘I. Clark’. To further complicate matters, Clark’s work has frequently been confused with that of John Heaviside Clark (c.1771-1863), an engraver and painter of landscapes and seascapes, born in Scotland.
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  • Details
    Title
    Aberdeen from the South
    Date
    Medium
    Coloured aquatint
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Sotheby's, 6 November 1957
    GAC number
    3946