Lot 380: GEORGE CUITT

GEORGE CUITT 1743-1818 HIGH FORCE ON THE RIVER TEES; WINCH BRIDGE ON THE RIVER TEES Quantity: 2 a pair, both signed lower left: G. Cuitt/ 1782 oil on canvas each 71 by 89 cm.; 28 by 35 in.

London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Early English Landscapes from Colonel Grant's Collection, 1952, no. 13

Colonel M. H. Grant, A Chronological History of the Old English Landscape Painters, London 1958, Vol. III, p.249, the view of High Force illustrated as plate 251

Colonel M. H. Grant;
Anonymous sale, Glasgow, Christie's, sale at Barnard Castle, 18th September 1989, lot 333 (bt. for £16,000)

'Like the fall of the Niagara in Canada....Swifter than an arrow from a bow the rapid water comes headlong down in a fall of 140 feet, which is 3 feet more than the descent of Niagara....It is a grand and amazing scene.'

These words of Thomas Amory from The Life of John Buncle of 1756, describe in dramatic terms the celebrated High Force on the river Tees in Yorkshire, one of the most famous sublime views for the eighteenth-century traveller or artist in Britain. The companion picture shows a famous bridge over the river Tees, originally constructed to enable Holwick lead miners to get to the lead mine in Little Eggleshope. The bridge was built in the mid eighteenth century, suspended on wrought iron chains which had been forged by hand. After the collapse of this original bridge, the Duke of Cleveland paid for a replacement bridge completed in 1830.