WILLIAM TAVERNER (1703-1772)

A CAPRICCIO OF THE ROMAN FORUM
Pen & ink with wash and black chalk
26.7 x 36.5 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
Iolo Williams (1890-1962);
Thence by descent
 
 
 
 
Taverner was the son of a minor dramatist and judge, also called William, and began his lifelong career in the Law when he was articled to his father in 1720. He later followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a procurator-general of the Arches Court, which functioned as the ecclesiastical court of Canterbury in London. We do not know whether he studied under any drawing tutors, but at some point during his legal career he began to draw and paint in watercolours, later working in oils and painting gouaches after Italian masters. 
 
Despite his amateur status, Taverner made a name for himself in his lifetime among the cognoscenti: Horace Walpole said of him that, had it not been for his alternative professional associations, he ‘was a considerable figure amongst the renowned professors of the art', alleging certain works 'that must be mistaken for, and are worthy of Gaspar Poussin.' Similarly, writing after his death, an anonymous critic in the Gentleman's Magazine called him "one of the best landscape-painters England ever produced, but as he painted only for amusement, his paintings are very rare, and will bear a high price". Thomas Gainsborough, William Payne-Knight and Paul Sandby are known to have owned drawings by him, presumably acquired at his posthumous sale. 
 
Taverner’s works on paper can broadly be separated into the more topographical drawings such as the present sheet - often monochromatic, with black chalk, light grey washes and a particular debt to Dughet - as well as those in watercolours, which are among the first in this medium which can be called recognisably British in their handling; and copies in gouache, chalk and watercolour after painters such as Salvator Rosa, Poussin and on at least one occasion, Cornelis van Poelenburgh. 
 
 
There are no contemporary records of Taverner having visited Rome, and his Italianate drawings and watercolours are likely based in part on paintings by the aforementioned artists and others whose views he was familiar with. The present scene is, in spite of this, a highly original and inventive rearrangement of several well-known architectural elements and edifices from throughout the Forum.