Compact, luminous, and intense, this unkempt view of Kensington Gardens is deliberately unidealized. Beneath dense clouds and distant trees, two wooden poles and a shed with a tiled roof punctuate a raw, sloping patch of earth. Just twenty years old, Linnell had recently converted to a nonconformist Protestant sect, acquired a camera obscura, and, influenced by William Paley’s Natural Theology, sought direct proof of God’s creation in landscape. The meticulous representation of nature became a moral imperative. To achieve it Linnell developed a distinctive technique using small touches of pure color that anticipated the work of Samuel Palmer and the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The artist probably added the identifying annotation at the bottom of the sheet at a later date.
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Title:View of Kensington Gardens, London
Artist:John Linnell (British, London 1792–1882 Redhill, Surrey)
Date:1812
Medium:Watercolor over graphite
Dimensions:Overall: 4 x 5 1/2in. (10.2 x 14cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Purchase, Guy Wildenstein Gift, 2000
Accession Number:2000.238
Signature: Pen and brown ink at lower left: "J. Linnell 1812"
Inscription: Inscribed in pen and brown ink at bottom center: "Kensington Gardens / about 1812 / No.1."
John Linnell (British)(and by descent to the following); Joan Linnell Ivimy, in 1993The artist's family by descent to John Linnell Ivimy, 1993; sold, Sotheby's, London, November 11, 1993, lot 108; Sotheby's, London, November 11, 1993, lot; Private Collection, United Kingdom London art market, 1999 (Spink-Leger Galleries).; Spink-Leger Pictures, London, in 2000; Vendor: Spink-Leger
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," January 28–April 21, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," March 19–June 22, 2015.
Winter Exhibition of Works by Old Masters and by the Late John Linnell.. Royal Academy of Arts, 1883, cat. no. 143.
John Lewis Roget A History of the "Old Water-Colour" Society. 2 vols, London, 1891, vol. I, p. 375.
Loan Exhibition of Drawings, Watercolours, and Paintings by John Linnell and his Circle. Exh. cat. P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., 1973, cat. no. 19c, pl. VII-B.
Landscape in Britain c. 1750-1850. Ex. cat., November 21, 1973-February 2, 1974. Tate Gallery, London, 1973, cat. no. 244.
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit. Ex. cat. Hamburger Kunsthalle , Hamburg, Germany, Hamburg, 1976, cat. no. 277.
John Linnell 1792-1882. Salisbury Festival Exhibition. Salisbury City Library, 1977, cat. no. 17.
Peter Galassi, New York Graphic Society Before Photography: Painting and the Invention of Photography. Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1981, cat. no. 30, pp. 56-57, ill.
John Linnell: A Centennial Exhibition. Exh. cat., October 1982–March 1983. Fitzwilliam Museum, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, Cambridge/ New Haven, 1982, cat. no. 21 (one of four studies), pp. 8, 57, ill.
Sotheby's, London Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century British Drawings and Watercolours. [Sale Catalogue]. November 11, 1993, lot 108, p. 69, The Property of a Lady, a descendant of John Linnell.
British Landscape Painting. [dealer catalogue]. Leger Galleries, London, London, May 11–June 2, 1994, cat. no. 28, pp. 88-91.
Spink-Leger Feeling Through the Eye: the 'New' Landscape in Britain 1800-1830. [dealer catalogue]. March 14-April 19, 2000, cat. no. 50, p. 75, ill.
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