The Celebration of the Fourth of June at Eton

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Eton's best-known holiday is the ‘celebration of the fourth of June’. The event marks the birthday of King George III, one of the most generous supporters of the college.~On this day (now in fact celebrated on the Wednesday before the first weekend of June) a procession of vintage wooden rowing boats travels along the River Thames, each manned by a rowing crew of Eton boys.

Watercolourist William Evans was probably born at Eton College; the son of artist Samuel Evans, Drawing Master there from 1808. After attending Eton, William abandoned medical training to study under William Collins and Peter DeWint. He married in 1822 and succeeded his father as Drawing Master the following year. In 1830 he became a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours. After his wife died in 1837, he was left to care for their eight children. He bought a boys’ boarding house, Eton. Evan painted views of games and events at the college and his two views of the Eton ‘Montem’ (lithographed 1852) are now his best-known works. He resigned as Eton Drawing Master in 1853 to concentrate on painting. He died in Eton, aged 79.

Places

England, Windsor Castle, Eton, Windsor, Berkshire, River Thames

Subjects

rowing boat, topography, Victorian Genre, tree, smoke, river bank, river, man, woman, celebration, 19th century costume, dress, flag, house, castle, chimney, chair, punt, barge/canal boat, sailboat, oar

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, colour aquatint

Artist

William (of Eton) Evans (1798 - 1877)
Charles George Lewis (1808 - 1880)

Title

The Celebration of the Fourth of June at Eton

Date

published 25 April 1837

Medium

Colour aquatint

Acquisition

Purchased from Frank T Sabin, March 1959

GAC number

4895