Nature and Man Revealed features the wide-ranging 18th-and 19th-century drawings recently donated by long-time Hamilton collectors Clare and Michael Watson. The high quality of this collection of British art in Canada is exceedingly rare. Thus, this exhibition presents an opportunity to view important works, many of which are on public display for the first time.
Such outstanding views as Thomas Girtin’s Romantic landscape reveal the first steps towards the more fluid and dynamic pictures of his close friend J.M.W. Turner. Alter natively, William Blake’s Head of a Faun and Richard Cosway’s Daphnis and Chloe illustrates the English fascination with Greco-Roman mythology. In short, the exhibit ion will highlight the quality and breadth of the Watsons’ collection, which shines brightest when the 18th-century Academic works and colourful chalk drawings of Antique subjects are contrasted with the pictorial diversity characteristic of British landscapes.
Header image: Richard Cosway (British 1742-1821), Two Classical Figures, Perhaps Daphnis and Chloe (detail), ink and ink wash on paper, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. H.J.M. Watson, 2016
