View of Tantalon Castle, the Bass Rock, and the River Fourth

Book Description

London: Francis Jukes, February 1792. Aquatint, printed in colours and finished by hand, by R. Dodd. Wove paper. (One small expertly repaired tear to lower blank margin). 15 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches. 21 1/2 x 30 7/8 inches. A fine example of a very rare large format hand-coloured aquatint view after Joseph Farington, R.A. This rare view is of the coast of Scotland, looking out into the Firth of Forth and Bass Rock. Tantallon Castle itself is about four miles from North Berwick, and about 25 miles east of Edinburgh and was originally intended to guard the Firth against any attack from the sea. Joseph Farington 'was born at Leigh in Lancashire on 21 Nov. 1747. He became a pupil of Richard Wilson in 1763, and, like his brother George, gained several premiums at the Society of Arts. At the age of twenty-one he joined the Incorporated Society of Artists, and was admitted a student of the Royal Academy at its formation in 1768. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1783 and full member in 1785, and in later years took an active and influential part in the government of that institution.' (DNB) Redgrave wrote that his colouring 'possessed power and brilliance' and that 'his penciling is free and firm'. Because of the rarity of large format plates such as the present work, he is best known for two collections of engraved views of the English lakes, one containing twenty plates published in 1789; the other forty-three plates, issued in 1816, with descriptions by T. Hartwell Horne. He also published Views of Cities and Towns in England and Wales as well as seventy-six plates illustrating a History of the River Thames, 1794.

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