catalog text
EDWARD CHARLES WILLIAMS
England, 1807-1881
An Expansive Countryside Landscape with Figures Before a Cottage
Oil on canvas | Signed "E. WILLIAMS" lower right
Item # 109WGP10Q
A brilliant evening scene capturing the English countryside as golden hour casts its warm tones across the fields and hills into the distance, the work has a most pleasing and consistent palette of balanced colors across the complex space. It is a peaceful work that depicts the end of a days labors, the shepherd chatting with a young woman as she heads towards her cozy cottage in the distance; presumably her mother is lingering in the gardens around the cottage while fires inside send smoke through both chimneys. In the distance a farmer is headed out into the open fields to check on his various cattle and sheep before settling in for the night.
Williams ability to render light in its various grades of opacity in a way that models the impact it has on reflected colors is above reproach and is showcased in the present example. The light reflecting off of the complex array of foliage in the trees is different at every angle of the branch and the saturation of colors is graded in a way that perfectly captures this.
While much of his work is unsigned, this example is signed in the lower right corner in his slightly stylized script "E. WILLIAMS".
EDWARD CHARLES WILLIAMS
Born on July 10th of 1807 into the famed Williams family of painters, Edward Charles was the firstborn son of the famous landscape painter Edward Williams and all five of his brothers would also go on to become notable landscape painters. Edward Charles trained under his father, as is immediately evident in the similarity of style and execution between him and his father, both father and son painting in a manner that follows closely the tradition of the early Dutch landscape painters. They focused frequently on woodland scenes with genre interactions: gypsies, farmers, the rural peasants with their idyllic cottages. His earlier work is often confused with his fathers due to the the technical similarities complicated further by the fact that both father and son left a great number of paintings unsigned. His mature work becomes more self-evident as he developed a noteworthy degree of artistic superiority to his father; this is clear in his crisp development of figures, shadows, clouds and composition. His brushwork is at once precise and exacting with infinite layering of high-chroma pigments. The sweeping vision of his composition grew in his later work and his canvases take on a more horizontal perspective. He collaborated with William Shayer for many of his paintings.
His first exhibition at the Royal Academy was in 1840 with "A Gypsy Encampment, Moon Rising" and he would continue exhibiting there through 1864. Algernon Graves records 136 works exhibited by Williams over the course of his career, including 19 at the Royal Academy, 23 at the British Institute and 10 at Suffolk Street.
Edward Charles lived on London Street as well as several addresses in the Tottenham Court Road commune of artists before settling in Hammersmith in 1854. After his first wife, Mary Ann, died in 1857 he began a relationship with the nurse to his ailing wife - she gave birth to his only daughter, Alice, a year later but they would not end up being married for another ten years. They spent the rest of their lives in Hammersmith and he would die essentially in poverty on July 25th of 1881 at the age of 74.
Artist Listings & Bibliography:
- E. Benezit Dictionary of Artists, Gründ, 2006, vol. XIII, p. 928
- The Dictionary of Victorian Painters, Wood, 1978, p. 517
- A Dictionary of Artists Who Have Exhibited Works in the Principal London Exhibitions from 1760-1893, Graves, 1973, p. 304
- The Williams Family of Painters, Reynolds, 1975
Measurements: 25 3/4" H x 40" W [canvas]; 30 1/2" H x 44 1/2" W x 2 7/8" D [frame]
Condition Report: Wax lining on original stretcher, one key replaced. Professionally conserved (cleaned, old overpaint removed and losses inpainted, fresh Damar varnish applied). Light surface craquelure throughout. Under UV examination showing scattered touchups around extreme edges of canvas where frame rubs, old repaired tear upper center of the sky. Contemporary frame with minor wear/chips throughout.