Roberts Heidelberg Castle {1904} NGV [WT]

Roberts, David (1796-1864; Scottish)
Heidelberg Castle (c.1830)
Watercolour over pencil with gouache, gum Arabic and sponging out, 43.6 x 32.3 cm (sheet)
Bequest of Alfred Felton, 1904
National Gallery of Victoria (154-2)

This work – one of the more significant examples selected from Felton’s personal collection after his death – joined Roberts St Anne, Bruges 1851 {1894} NGV [PA], purchased for the Melbourne gallery a decade earlier.

Discussing the artist’s watercolour style, Mallalieu criticizes his sometimes excessively tight architectural drawing, and comments on his taste for theatricality, reflecting his early training as a scene-painter; both characteristics are evident in this view.

Refs.

AR 1904, p.26; NGV 1905, p.45 (II.Stawell Gallery, no.32; ill.) 

See Mallalieu (1976), p.221 (quoted)