Opinion of William Westall

Final extract from cuts to Turner Studies article.

R.N. James, in 'Painters and their work' (L.Upcott Gill 1896) Vol III pp 284/5) made some interesting observations about William Westall when he wrote: 'To speak of William Westall's pictures as those of a topographical painter who made his sketches and watercolours, as has been done, is to do him much injustice, for both in watercolours and in oils his works, while correct views, are none the less good paintings, in which the colouring and management of light and shade are excellent'.
Colonel Grant in 'Old English Landscape Painters' (Vol VII p 532) an erratic observer of British art but one with a wide knowledge of his field, wrote: 'When Westall set up his easel at home, beside Windermere, or before the embattled brow of Yorkshire Richmond, or better still by the sunny flats of Ely and Cambridge, very peaceful and beautiful paintings resulted'.