Apart from a handful of atmospherically sensitive topographical views in the south of England, little is known of Jonathan Skelton before he embarked in 1757 for Italy, where he died two years later. Earlier in 1757 he produced a set of eight views of Canterbury and its environs, to which this drawing of the village of Harbledown belongs. Skelton’s topographical drawings reveal the sort of naturalistic concerns that would come more and more to the forefront of British landscape art as the century progressed. In his view of the leper’s hospital at Harbledown, Skelton seems more involved with the trees and old fences and tumbledown outbuildings than with the hospital itself, which can just be glimpsed through the trees. When he mounted the drawing, Skelton added a note that it had been made after a summer shower—the sort of meteorological notation the Romantic landscape painter John Constable would make some sixty or seventy years later. Gallery label for Paul Mellon's Legacy: A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)
This watercolor was made shortly before Skelton's trip to Italy, from which he was never to return. It belongs to a set of eight views of Canterbury and its vicinity, of which four are in the Paul Mellon Collection (YCBA). Harbledown was the last village that pilgrims encountered before arriving at the ancient cathedral city of Canterbury, one and a half miles away. From atop the hill on which Harbledown is located (“Bobbe up-and-down” as the village was once referred to by Chaucer in his “Canterbury Tales”), pilgrims would have an unimpeded view of the cathedral. The road at the forefront of Skelton's composition is known today as the old Pilgrims Way, linking London to Canterbury. Hardly recognizable amid its densely wooded surroundings is the church of St. Nicholas, or “Harbledown hospital” (the subject is given by Skelton himself on the sheet's verso), still referred to nine hundred years later by locals as “The Leper Church,” or leper's hospital. This lazaret, with its adjoining almshouses (many of which have not survived), was a mandatory stop for early kings en route to Canterbury. “Harbledown” perfectly demonstrates Skelton's mastery in color variations. His inclination toward the observation of nature is suggested by an inscription on the old mount which reads: “Harbledown, A village near Canterbury./.J: Skelton 1757./.N: B: Drawn immediately after a heavy Summer-Shower.” His use of the method of “tinted drawing,” a technique that consisted of adding washes of colors over penciled outlines, is precise without being rigid; a full spectrum of greens and browns is exploited to effectively convey a damp atmosphere. As with other compositions in the Canterbury series, the artist represented Harbledown in a panoramic format in which the sense of depth is suggested by a wandering path. Stéphane Roy John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 260-61, no. 42, pl. 42, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
Jonathan Skelton seems to have belonged to a circle of talented landscape watercolorists including William Taverner (cat. 44) and the foremost landscape painter of mid-century Britain, George Lambert (1700-65). Stylistic links in the work of theses three artists seem persuasive. There is, however, no documentary evidence connecting Taverner with Lambert or Skelton, and the only evidence of a connection between Lambert and Skelton is Skelton's recurring references to a "Mr. Lambert" in his letters from Rome. Apart from these letters, which provide a record of Skelton's life from his arrival in Rome in later 1757 to his premature death there in 1759, we know virtually nothing of his life. Indeed, his work was completely unknown until the rediscovery of eight-four of his drawings in a 1909 sale. In his earliest known watercolors, a series pf views pf Croydon dated 1754, Skelton's technique closely resembles that of Lambert. By 1757, the year of the series of eight views of Canterbury and its environs (four of which are in the Yale Center for British Art), Skelton had refined the style inherited from Lambert into a more expressive and atmospheric instrument. The buildings and foliage are at once more solid and more delicate, and his compositions have gained an offhand grace lacking in his earlier work. Skelton produced his Canterbury views in the manner of the "tinted" drawing standard to topographical draftsmanship of the early eighteenth century. Over a pencil outline he modeled the forms in gray wash, then added washes of color, finally strengthening the outlines with pen. Yet Skelton uses his technique with great subtlety. Because of the richness of his color and the delicate, fluttering character of his pen work, his drawings have none of the hard linear quality that the term "tinted' drawing suggests. The Great Gate of St. Augustine's Monastery shows the entrance gate built by Abbot Fyndon in 1300, to the abbey founded by St. Augustine in 598. A view of the gate by J.M.W. Turner (cat. 144) is also in the exhibition. The view of Harbledown shows the buildings of the leper's hospital around which the village grew up. In both drawings the emphasis seems less on the topographical detail than on the fall of light and the texture of Brick and tile and old wood. Skelton's concern with light and atmosphere is further demonstrated by an inscription on the old mount (now removed) of the Harbledown drawing, which reads: "Harbledown, A village near Canterbury | J: Skelton 1757 | N:B: Drawn immediately after a heavy Summer-Shower." Scott Wilcox Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001. pg 157. cat. no 133. N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Block Museum of Art, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Toledo Museum of Art, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Portland Art Museum, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
British Watercolors - Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries from the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1985-04 - 1986-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
Paul Mellon's Legacy : A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]
An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British watercolour drawings in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Victoria, BC, 1971, p. 17, no. 38, ND1928 .A76 1971 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]
John Baskett, English drawings and watercolors, 1550-1850, in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon , The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 1972, p. 31, no. 43, NC228 B37+ (YCBA) [YCBA]
John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 260-261, no. 42, pl. 42, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]
Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 2, no. 62, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]
S. Rowland Pierce, Jonathan Skelton and his water colours : a check list, Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 36, 1960, p. 16, no. 28, N12 .W35 A1 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) Also available online via JSTOR.
Sotheby's sale catalogue : Fine eighteenth and nineteenth century drawings and paintings : 13 July 1966, Sotheby's, July 13, 1966, p. 5, lot 10, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)
Scott Wilcox, British watercolors : drawings of the 18th and 19th centuries from the Yale Center for British Art, , Hudson Hill Press, New York, 1985, no. 2, pl. 2, ND1928 W533 1985 (YCBA) [YCBA]
