Original Sepia Wash Watercolour 'Durham' by Sir Augustus Wall Calcott RA (1779-1844) Framed

Fine quality sepia sketch of Durham from above the Wear with the Cathedral high above the bank and figures in the foreground. Landscape, marine, historical painter, woodcut designer and etcher. Born in London, studied at the RA as a student of John Hoppner, worked in London, first exhibited a portrait at the Ra in 1799 but from 1804 exhibited only landscapes and from 1830 foreign landscape scenes. Later in his career experimented with the popular narrative genre, exhibiting 'Raphael and La Fornarina' and 'Milton Dictating to his Daughters at the Ra in 1837 and 1840 respectively. Married the writer and bluestocking Maria Graham (1785-1842) in 1827; the two undertook a year-long honeymoon tour of the continent distinguished by their progressive interest in early Italian and Northern European art. Their joint publication "A Description of the Annunziata dell' Arena; or, Giotto's Chapel in Padua" (1835), for which Maria wrote the text and Augustus provided the drawings, derived from observations and sketches made during the tour and, though published privately, has the distinction of being the first monograph on both Giotto and the Arena Chapel in English. Knighted in 1837 and appointed Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures in 1843, although he died after only a short term in post.