1

DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURSBY CHARLES GORE (1729-1807)

2

Guy Peppiatt started his working life at Dulwich Picture Gallery before joining Sotheby’s British Pictures Department in 1993. He soon specialised in early British drawings and watercolours and took over the running of Sotheby’s Topographical sales. Guy left Sotheby’s in 2004 to work as a dealer in early British watercolours and since 2006 he has shared a gallery on the ground floor of 6 Mason’s Yard off Duke St., St. James’s with the Old Master and European Drawings dealer Stephen Ongpin. He advises clients and museums on their collections, buys and sells on their behalf and can provide insurance valuations. He exhibits as part of Master Drawings New York every January as well as London Art Week in July and December.

Email: guy@peppiattfineart.co.ukTel: 020 7930 3839 or 07956 968 284

Sarah Hobrough has spent nearly 25 years in the field of British drawings and watercolours. She started her career at Spink and Son in 1995, where she began to develop a specialism in British watercolours of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 2002, she helped set up Lowell Libson Ltd, serving as co-director of the gallery. In 2007, Sarah decided to pursue her other passion, gardens and plants, and undertook a post graduate diploma in landscape design. She established a landscape design company, which she continues to run, alongside her art consultancy practise. She has consulted for dealers and auction houses, helping Christie’s watercolour department for a number of years, as well private clients, helping them research and develop their collections.

Email: sarah@peppiattfineart.co.ukTel: 07798 611 017

3

DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS BY CHARLES GORE (1729-1807)

2ND TO 9TH JULY 2021

Open Monday to Friday 10am to 6pmSaturday 3rd and Sunday 4th 11am to 5pm

Preview Thursday 1st July 4pm to 8pm

Guy Peppiatt Fine Art LtdRiverwide House, 6 Mason’s Yard

Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BU

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7930 3839Mobile: +44 (0) 7956 968284

Fax: +44 (0) 20 7839 1504guy@peppiattfineart.co.ukwww.peppiattfineart.co.uk

4

INTRODUCTION

Artist, sailor, boat designer and traveller, Charles Gore was born in Lincolnshire, the son of a retired Hamburg merchant. After attending Westminster School, he initially embarked on a career in the family’s bank, Gore and Mellish, but retired on his marriage to the heiress Mary Cockerill in 1751. His marriage allowed Charles the financial freedom to indulge his passion for drawing and for the sea. In 1757, following his father’s death, the family moved from the family seat, Horkstow Hall, Lincolnshire, and settled in Southampton, where Gore was able to further his interest in ‘mechanics and shipbuilding’ as well as his ‘passion for navigation’. He designed and had built several boats, including the cutter, ‘The Snail’ (see cat no.1) whose revolutionary design was adopted by the Royal Navy for their small fast vessels.

There is no evidence that Gore undertook any formal training as an artist, although, like most gentlemen of the period, he would have been taught painting and drawing. It is known that Gore adopted the use of a camera obscura, early in his career, which as Peter Fraser notes, suggests ‘a contact with either a drawing master or an innovative amateur’ (Peter D. Fraser, ‘Charles Gore and the Willem Van de Veldes’, Master Drawings, Winter 1977, Vol. 5, no. 4, p. 379). His mastery of the camera obscura proved enormously useful, ‘principally because of its usefulness in capturing the subtle curves of a ship’s hull, the curves which inevitably defeat the unpractised eye and surprisingly often that of the professional’. (loc. cit.).

Precipitated by Gore’s wife’s delicate health, the Gore family, (Charles, Mary and their three surviving daughters, Emily, Eliza and Hannah Ann), spent many years living and travelling throughout Europe, including to France, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. In 1773 the family moved to Lisbon, before settling in Italy between 1774 and 1778, followed by nearly two years in Switzerland and the Low Countries.

Whilst in Italy, Gore became friendly with many of the artists forming the cosmopolitan and dynamic community based in Rome. In particular he became close to Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737–1807), one of the leading landscape painters of the period. The two men probably formed a friendship through their mutual admiration of marine subjects and they sketched regularly together in the Roman Campagna. During the winter evenings, Gore would join the other British and German artists who met at Hackert’s house to talk and sketch together. Their relationship was never that of professional teaching amateur, but more of equals. Gore was influenced by Hackert’s use of bodycolour, whilst Hackert developed a lighter handling of colour through the use of watercolour. Hackert did however teach at least one of Gore’s daughter’s.

5

Charles and his family returned to London in 1779, taking a house in New Burlington Street, and Gore became a member of the Society of Dilettanti, along with Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824), with whom Gore had travelled in Italy during the summer of 1777. However, Mary’s failing health, necessitated a move once more to the continent and in 1783, following the Treaty of Versailles, they went first to Aix-La-Chapelle and then to The Hague. In August 1785, whilst Gore had returned to London to settle their affairs, his wife died. Gore however, did not return to England to live, preferring to remain on the continent.

In 1787, Gore and his daughters, Emily and Eliza undertook a tour of the parts of Germany that they had not previously visited including Weimar, Dresden and Berlin. During this visit, they met the Duke, Karl August of Saxe-Weimar, who apparently became infatuated with Emily Gore and the two remained close for several years, corresponding regularly. The following summer they returned to Weimar and in 1791, the Duke and Duchess persuaded Gore to move to Weimar permanently. He was given the Jaegerhaus, formerly the residence of the polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) which remained his until his death in 1807. Charles’ daughter Eliza lived with her father until her death in 1802, along with her younger sister Emily who, following her father’s death, moved to live with her youngest sister, Hannah Ann, in Pisa.

The bulk of Gore’s drawings and watercolours were given by Emily Gore to the Duke of Weimar and are now in the Schlossmuseum, Weimar. A smaller group were bequeathed by Richard Payne Knight to the British Museum, whilst others are in institutions including the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and The Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.

A number of these drawings came from the collections of Sir Bruce Ingram and his nephew Michael Ingram. Both were enthusiastic collectors of British, a well as Old Master, drawings and their collections were sold at Sotheby’s, Bruce’s in 1962, 1964 and 1974

Sarah Hobrough

We are extremely grateful to Pieter van der Merwe for his help in identifying the shipping and his work in identifying the subject matter of the works after van de Velde.

6

1.

The artist’s Cutter ‘Snail’ beached by a Pier

Inscribed upper centre: Snail Cutter.Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid Whatman paper28.7 by 18 cm., 11 ¼ by 7 in.

Gore was a knowledgeable sailor and keen amateur shipbuilder. He designed several boats and the ‘Snail’ was a cutter that he designed and had built whilst living in Southampton. He accompanied the Royal Navy on annual manoeuvres and its handling and design proved so successful that the Royal Navy adopted Gore’s improvements for their own small, fast vessels.

The ‘Snail’ was a small cutter-rigged pleasure yacht. The hull is clearly clinker construction, not plank-on-frame carvel, as in the larger coastal trader shown on the left which is under maintenance or painting from temporary platforms hung over the bow. The Snail’s legs would have been bolted on when moored in tidal harbours so that it settled upright as shown given its profile. Broad-bottomed vessels like that to the left could heel over safely at low tide but those like Snail, which tip right over without the legs, too easily swamp if the tide comes in over their gunwales before they ‘unstick’ from the mud. Such legs are still widely used today with deep-keel boats that won’t settle more or less upright.

£2,800 unframed

7

2.

Small trading Vessels beached and drying sails at low tide by Jersey pier

Inscribed upper centre: Jersey Pier –Pen and grey ink and watercolour on two sheets of laid paper joined28.4 by 19.4 cm., 11 by 7 ¾ in.

In her biography of her father’s life, Emily Gore recollected that whilst the family was living in Southampton, between 1757 and 1773, Gore spent time sailing around the coast of Britain, visiting the Channel Islands and the northern French coast on several occasions and the present work would have been executed during one of these visits.

The drawing depicts cutter-rigged sloops with carved work at the stem-head and seem to be of carvel (smooth-hull) plank-on-frame construction, not clinker.

There is a drawing in Weimar which is inscribed ‘Snail cutter taken in camera Jersey 1773’.

£2,800 unframed

8

3.

A fortified Bay on the Italian Coast, with lateen rigged Vessels and three small Ships

Indistinctly inscribed upper centrePen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper12.6 by 37 cm., 5 by 14 ½ in.

Provenance:Michael Ingram (1917-2005)

£2,200 unframed

9

4.

The Harbour at Civitavecchia, Italy

Inscribed upper centre: Civita VecchiaPen and grey ink and grey washes over pencil on laid paper watermarked JKOOL21.2 by 37.3 cm., 8 ¼ by 14 ½ in.

Provenance:Michael Ingram (1917-2005)

Civitavecchia lies about 50 miles west of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea and serves as the port of Rome. The harbour was first founded by Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd Century. The Forte Michelangelo on the left of the drawing, was begun in 1508 and completed in 1535 on the site of a large Roman structure. Mainly designed by Donato Bramante (1444–1514) under the patronage of Pope Julius II,

to protect the town from pirates, the upper part of the Maschio Tower was built by Michelangelo, after whom the fort was named. The lighthouse, seen in the centre of the drawing, was built in 1616 and stood until it was destroyed during World War II. Gore would have visited the town frequently on his trips around the Italian coast.

This shows fishing boats to left and a small warship (presumably belonging to the Papal States) with yards struck down to the right.

£1,800 unframed

10

5.

The Aeolian Islands off Sicily

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper13.5 by 29.8 cm., 5 ¼ by 11 ¾ in.

Provenance:Sir Bruce Ingram (1877-1953) (Lugt. No. 1405a); Michael Ingram (1917-2005)

The present drawing shows the group of volcanic islands off the northern coast of Sicily, that make up the Aeolian or Lipari archipelago including Stromboli, Lipari, Vulcano, Salina, Filicudi, Alicudi and Panarea. In the centre of the composition is Stromboli, nicknamed the ‘lighthouse of the Mediterranean, for its constant towering glow. Stromboli has been almost constantly active for the past 2500 years.

Gore visited the islands in the company of Richard Payne Knight and Philipp Hackert in the spring of 1777. There are two further views of the islands, formerly in Payne Knight’s collection, now in the British Museum and a further 12 in the collection of the Schlossmuseum, Weimar.

From its flat profile, the vessel to the left appears to be a war galley making passage under sail and probably from one of the Italian states (most likely the Kingdom of Naples), with a lateen trader to the right.

£2,400 unframed

11

6.

View looking towards Genoa, Italy

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper21.8 by 44.4 cm., 8 ½ by 17 ½ in.

A watercolour by William Brockedon (1787-1854) in the Yale Center for British Art appears to depict the same subject from a slightly different angle, inscribed ‘View of Genoa, from the heights near Spinturno’

£1,900 unframed

12

7.

A Cutter off a rocky Islet, with other Shipping in the Distance

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper19.3 by 47.3 cm., 7 ¾ by 18 ½ in.

The present drawing may depict Porto Venere on the Ligurian coast of Italy, although the landscape beyond would be rather hillier than that shown here. A drawing by Gore in the British Museum which appears to show the same hill outcrop with buildings, is inscribed `Porto Venere coming out of the Gulf of Spezzia [sic]’.

The boat looks like an English cutter and perhaps a yacht, possibly the Snail but it looks more substantial, with a topmast and full square ‘course’. A two-masted lugger is sketched in unfinished to the left.

£1,900 unframed

13

8.

The Triumphal Arch at Orange, France

Inscribed lower centre: Triumphal Arch of Orange. Erected by Marius & Catulus from the Victory over the Cimbri & TeutonsWatercolour over pencil on laid paper watermarked GR, with collector’s mark verso11 by 24.5 cm., 4 ¼ by 9 ½ in.

Provenance:Sir Bruce Ingram (1877-1953) (Lugt. No. 1405a); Michael Ingram (1917-2005)

The Gallo-Roman arch at Orange, is the largest and oldest surviving arch of the period and has been classified a UNESCO world heritage site. Its design was subsequently used in Rome, with the Arches of Constantine and Septimus Severus. It was constructed between A.D. 10-25 during the reign of Augustus and was first dedicated to the glory of the veteran armies and then to Emperor Tiberius. It stood on the Via Agrippa and marked a border between the world of the dead and the Roman city of Orange.

£1,800 unframed

14

9.

Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore, Italy

Signed lower right: Lac Magiore Isola Bella vue du Cote du Sud en entrant dans la Bage venant de Seste. 1795 C Gor., inscribed upper centre: Lago Maggiore and further inscribed lower leftPen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper watermarked with a fleur de lys, with a pen and black ink border15.8 by 31.4 cm., 6 ¼ by 12 ¼ in.

Provenance:Michael Ingram (1917-2005)

In March 1774, Charles Gore and family settled in Italy, where they were to remain for the next four years, staying largely in Rome but travelling extensively throughout the region and undertaking frequent lengthy cruises along the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian

coasts. Gore returned to Italy again in the summer of 1794 travelling around the Italian Lakes and to Naples.

Isola Bella is the largest of the islands in Lake Maggiore, owned by the Borromeo family. Initially a rocky outcrop inhabited by fishermen and with two small churches, Carlo III began an ambitious building programme to create a palazzo in 1632. Work continued under subsequent generations developing and expanding the palace and large terraced pleasure gardens.

There is a watercolour showing the island from a distance, also dated 1795, in the British Museum and a further watercolour showing the island from a similar angle in the Yale Center for British Art.

£3,000 unframed

15

10.

Isola dei Pescatori, Lake Maggiore, Italy

Inscribed upper centre: Isola Peschiera. Lago MaggiorePen, grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper, with collector’s mark on reverse of mount10.2 by 24.8 cm., 4 by 9 ¾ in.

Provenance:Sir Bruce Ingram (1877-1953) (Lugt. No. 1405a); Michael Ingram (1917-2005)

Isola Pescatori or Superiore lies to the north of Isola Bella and is the only permanently inhabited of the Borromean Islands. The spire of the 11th church of San Vittore can be seen rising above the roofs of the village.

£2,800 unframed

16

11.

Italian coastal View with boats and a trading xebec and a Fort approached by a causeway bridge in the distance

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper watermarked JKOOL27.5 by 44.8 cm., 10 ¾ by 17 ½ in.

This may be a view of Mount Etna on Sicily with Catania to the left.

£2,200 unframed

17

12.

A Weyschuit coming ashore under the shelter of a groyne on the Dutch coast: Study after van de Velde the Younger

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on grey-blue laid paper18.1 by 28.8 cm., 7 by 11 ¼ in.

The single masted boat, sprit-rigged with a loose-footed sail and leeboards, is a Dutch weyschuit. Its appearance, including the raised sail and associated figures, is very

similar to an oil by van de Velder titled, A fishing pink hauled up on the beach in a moderate breeze near a groyne on the Dutch coast, now in the Fondation Custodia, Institution Neérlandais, Paris. During the 18th Century the painting was at Gopsall Hall, Leicestershire, so Gore may well have seen the painting, or a related drawing (some of which are now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich).

£1,500 unframed

18

13.

A Frigate anchored close inshore in a stiff breeze, with three Cutters and a three men in a Rowing Boat trying to push off into the Wind

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on blue laid paper12.5 by 27.3 cm., 5 by 10 ¾ in.

The frigate in the present drawing is most likely a British vessel.

£2,400 unframed

19

14.

The Burning of the ‘Royal James’ at the Battle of Solebay, 7th June 1672 - a study after Willem van de Velde, the Younger

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper19 by 30.4 cm., 7 ¾ by 12 in.

The present drawing is a study after a painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1644-1703) in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (NMM BHC0302). Van de Velde explored the subject in a number of versions, as well as in preparatory drawings, one of which closely mirrors the present composition, also in the National Maritime Museum (NMM PA17272).

In the battle of Solebay during the Third Dutch War, the Admiral of the English Fleet, Edward Montagu, 1st Earl Sandwich, commanded the navy from aboard the Royal

James, a three-deck, 100-gun vessel. It was set alight during the battle and Montagu was drowned whilst trying to move his flag to another vessel.

The ship in the centre of this work is the Royal James, with Sandwich’s flag flying at the main. The small vessel next to the Royal James is the Dutch fireship Vrede, under the command of Jan van Rijn. The boats pencilled in to the right of the Vrede, may be her crew making their escape. The English crew are abandoning the ship, over the bow where there are waiting boats. The flag on the foremast of the ship at right (despite being blue) is the Dutch tricolor of Vice-Admiral Isaac Sweerts on the Oliphant.

£450 unframed

20

15.

Shipping in Rough Seas, possibly after the Van de Veldes

Pen and brown ink and washes over pencil on laid paperSheet 18 by 34 cm., 7 by 13 ¼ in.

Gore appears to have collected a number of drawings and watercolours by the Van de Veldes, although, it seems that initially, he was more interested in the subject matter, than in their artistic value. This is evidenced by the fact that he often overworked the slighter sketches and studies. Some of this overworking, is rather clumsy and lacks sophistication, suggesting that these were undertaken earlier in his career. Others, however, are more accomplished, indicating that he continued his practice of overworking over a long period. He has often been criticised for this practice, which is sometimes so extensive that it is difficult to discern the original

drawing underneath. However, his relationship with the earlier artists is clearly more sophisticated, as there are also a number of copies of works by the Van de Veldes, which indicates that Gore, like so many of his contemporaries was profoundly influenced by their artistic accomplishment, particularly in their handling of pen and ink. Their work also served as models for the ‘development of his personal style’ (see Peter D Fraser, ‘Willem Van de Veldes’, Master Drawings ,Winter 1977, vol. 5, no. 4 p. 379).

The vessel to the right is ‘sloop’ size and the slight vessel is probably firing a salute.

£1,500 unframed

21

16.

Resolution Bay, or Vaitahu, Marquesas Islands

Inscribed upper right: Baye de la Resolution Isle des Marquis and similarly inscribed on mountPen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper, with pen and black in border13.3 by 27.7 cm., 5 ¼ by 10 ¾ in.

Provenance:Michael Ingram (1917-2005)

Gore although well-travelled through Europe, never ventured further afield and in the present drawing, he has taken inspiration from Benjamin Thomas Pouncy’s engraving of William Hodges’ drawing of the islanders of Resolution Bay, wearing woven grass head-dresses, in their long canoes. Looking at work by artists who had travelled further afield, was not uncommon at the time, many maritime artists such as John and Robert Cleveley, drew on the works of others.

William Hodges (1744-1797) joined Cook’s second expedition to the South Pacific between 1772-5, as a draughtsman. Cook travelled to the Marquesas in March of 1774. John Hawkesworth’s account of 1773, for which Pouncy’s engraving was made, records that the islanders’ canoes were ‘made of wood and pieces of the Bark of a soft wood, which grows near the Sea in great plenty, and is very tough and proper for the purpose; They are from 16 to 20 feet long and about 15 inches broad. The head and stern is made of two pieces of Wood, the Stern rises or curves a little, but in an irregular direction and ends in a point; the head projects out horizontally and is car[v]ed into some faint and very rude resemblance of a human face. They are rowed by Paddles and some have a sort of Latteen sail made of Mating.’ (Cook, Journals II, 12 April 1774). The ship in the centre is Cook’s Resolution.

£1,500 unframed

22

17. Eliza M. Gore (1754-1802)Italian Landscape

Signed lower left: E.M. Gore/1775Gouache on laid paper23.8 by 34.8 cm., 9 ¼ by 13 ¾ in.

Eliza or Elizabeth Gore was the eldest of Gore’s three surviving daughters. She and her sisters, Emily (1756-c.1831) and Hannah Anne (1758-1826) were renowned beauties and were popular with the Royal Dukes (the sons of George III) who were on friendly terms with their father and regularly sailed in Gore’s yacht around the south coast.

The influence of Philipp Hackert, a close family friend, from their time in Rome is evident in the present work. Eliza studied under Hackert, both in Italy and Weimar and according to Goethe, Hackert described her as his most gifted pupil.

In 1775, the date of the present work, Eliza’s sister Hannah Anne married George Clavering-Cowper, the future 3rd Earl Cowper (1738-1789) in Florence. A wedding portrait showing the Cowper and Gore families by Johann Zoffany is in the Yale Center for British Art. Eliza is shown next to her sister Emily, holding a porte-crayon.

Eliza married the Rev. Henry Wood D.D (1726-1790), the son of Francis Wood JP of Monk Bretton, Yorkshire. Charles Gore moved to Weimar in 1791 and Eliza, following the death of her husband the previous year, moved with him. She died there in 1802. The family collections were left to the Weimar Library, including a portrait of Eliza painted by Johann Tischbein in circa 1795. Two gouaches by her of Vesuvius erupting also dated 1775 are in the Klassik Stiftung, Weimar.

£2,400 unframed