Italianate river landscape

Taverner was among the earliest British artists to paint ambitiously in watercolor, adopting visual structures previously associated with Italian and Dutch works in oil. This expansive composition across three joined sheets of paper encapsulates his experimental approach. Layers of tone define form, gouache strengthens the foliage, and iron gall ink is applied to the shadows. Aspects of the river scene resemble a stretch of the Thames near Windsor, although the sinuous arrangement and planar buildings recall landscapes by the Italian master Paolo Anesi. Taverner earned his living in London as procurator-general of the ecclesiastical Court of Arches of Canterbury. This freed him from the drudgery of painting country-house views and enabled him to produce watercolors that Paul Sandby and Thomas Gainsborough admired.