Description:A pencil, charcoal and chalk preliminary sketch, by Peter De Wint (1784-1849).
Peter De Wint's father, henry, was born in the Netherlands but settled in Stone to pursue his medical career. Peter was born in a house next to the Crown Hotel in Stone in 1784. He too was destined for a career in medicine but disliked it and instead chose to be an artist. His first lessons were from Benjamin Rogers, a Stafford landscape painter.
He went to London in 1802 to become John Raphael Smith's pupil. Over the next few years he exhibited in London, became friends with the poet John Clare and the painter John Constable. He married Harriet Hilton in 1810.
De Wint is best known for his watercolour landscapes, particularly of river and harvesting scenes, and he often sketched the valleys of the Thames and the Trent. He is one of one of the few Staffordshire-born artists with a national reputation.
Dimensions: height - 206mm, width - 355mm