George Fennel Robson, P.O.W.S. (1788-1833)

After his initial training in Durham, George Fennel Robson moved to London in 1804 with the intention of becoming a landscape painter. He was introduced to the circle of artists surrounding John Varley (see lots 26 and 27), and it was from Varley that Robson derived the strong uncluttered compositions that characterised his own style. Travelling widely throughout the British Isles, Robson was drawn to sublime mountainous landscapes such as that in the present watercolour, and established himself as the principal interpreter of the Romantic landscape.

Although fully laid down, an old label (on the reverse of the frame) records that this drawing is signed and dated 1832. Robson exhibited a watercolour at The Society of Painters in Water-colour, London, in 1833 entitled Distant View of Snowdon and the Nanthill Pools, North Wales (no. 241).