Lot 97: CORNELIUS VARLEY

CORNELIUS VARLEY 1781 - 1873 DISTANT LIGHTNING-TWILIGHT signed Cornelius Varley Delt lower left and inscribed with the title Distant Lightning--Twilight lower left and center pen and gray ink with wash over pencil on wove paper 5 5/8 by 7 1/2 in. 14.3 by 19 cm

Yale 2010, no. 58

Andrew Wyld, London
Acquired from the above, 2008

A combined interest in both science and the arts meant that the study of the sky and atmospheric phenomena came naturally to Cornelius Varley. He first made sky studies as early as 1798 (see Lowell Libson, Cornelius Varley, The Art of Observation, 2005, no. 2A & B, p. 63) and is considered to be one of the earliest British artists to do so. In 1807 Varley published the first of two articles on the subject in the Philosophical Magazine. While in 1809 he wrote an essay entitled Meteorological Observations on a Thunder Storm which he described as 'some remarks on a thunderstorm seen at a distance' (Yale 2010, p. 76).