Classical Landscape by Varley John (1 results)

Watercolor and pencil on wove paper, 4 1/4 x 6 7/8 inches (109 x 175 mm), the full sheet. In good condition with moderate attenuation and some toning, especially around the sheet edges. There is a graphite and brownish ink sketch of a robed classical figure amongst ruins on the verso. John Varley was born at the Old Blue Post Tavern, Hackney, on 17 August 1778. His father, Richard Varley, born at Epworth in Lincolnshire, had settled in London after the death of his first wife in Yorkshire. For a brief time John Varley was employed by a portrait painter in Holborn and then, at the age of 15 or 16, he became a pupil of Joseph Charles Barrow (fl. 1789-1802), who had an evening drawing school twice a week at 12 Furnival's Inn Court, Holborn. It was Barrow who took Varley on a sketching tour to Peterborough from which he emerged as a professional painter. In 1798 he exhibited a highly regarded sketch of Peterborough Cathedral at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and became a regular exhibitor at the RA until the foundation of the Old Watercolour Society in 1805.