Westall,Turner & Girtin

Another extract from the cuts to 'The Westall Brothers'

The 'Somerset House Gazette' in a series of articles on 'The Rise and Progress of Water Colour Painting in England' (No IV p 113 29 Nov 1823) commented that 'Were we to neglect to mention Mr Richard Westall, whose historical and poetical compositions displayed so elegant a taste in the grouping of the human figure, whilst a young man, and the contemporary of Turner and Girtin, we should do great injustice to his merits.' The article went on to suggest that Westall 'as one of the founders of the British school of water-colour painting' was reaching in his pictures at the Royal Academy standards of force, clarity and contrast which excited no less admiration with 'all judges of art' than did 'the admired works of Turner and Girtin'. The author, probably the editor of the Journal W.H. Pyne, of the above relates that Westall never lived up to the hopes of his early admirers because, due to 'the benevolence of his heart, yielding to the claims of family affection' he was forced to 'labour for profit'. S.T. Prideaux in 'Aquatint Engraving' (published by Duckworth in 1909 p.185) mentions 'A Treatise on Ackermann's Superfine Water-Colours (1801)' with directions to prepare and use them, including succinct hints on drawing and painting' in which the author 'recommends the study of Turner, Girtin and Westall'. The index entry gives this as a reference to William Westall but in 1801 William was unknown; this clearly a reference to Richard Westall.The same error is made in 'The Tempting Prospect' by Michael Clarke (British Museum publications 1981).

If we are to have a balanced re-assessment of Richard Westall I can think of no better place to start than a letter by Richard James, formerly lecturer at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at Birmingham University, who wrote to me: (Feb 2 1982)
'Richard Westall seems interesting to me less for any influence he may have had on others than for the influences he absorbed and displays in his own work. Of all the figure painters of what one might loosely describe as the "Boydell generation" he seems the most typical in the blend one finds of neo-calssical composition, proto-romanticism, diluted Fuseli, the stage traditions of Kemble and Mrs Siddons etc etc. As a style it marks the end, rather than a new beginning - the end of attempts to live up to Reynolds's advice and ambitions for history painting...I believe that his importance, or rather his usefulness, is that he typified so much that was current and alive in the last two decades of the 19th century.' It could be said that Westall led, in some ways, an era of British art from which Turner emerged to replace him.
James describes 'The First Interview of Henry IV of France with the Fair Gabrielle' by Westall, exhibited at the RA in 1829 (no79) and which was shown at the Fine Arts Society in April 1971 as 'Westall doing a Bonington, in some respects' One wonders if it might not have been that Bonington 'did a Westall'.