Lot 14: John William North, A.R.A., R.W.S. (1842-1924)

October Wood
signed and dated 'J.W. North/A.R.A./1903' (lower left)
pencil and watercolour, with gum arabic and with scratching out
13 1/4 x 19 in. (33.5 x 48.3 cm.)

with The Rowley Gallery, London.
Antiques Centre, Long Melford, Suffolk, 1972.

Another very characteristic production of an artist for whom woods and orchards held an abiding appeal. Much of the inspiration for these subjects came from North's friend Richard Jefferies, the naturalist and writer on country life who died in 1887. Particularly influential was Jefferies' novel Bevis: The Story of a Boy (1882), which describes the adventures of Bevis and his friend Mark in the woods near Bevis's home, a place full of romantic possibilities that the boys call 'New Formosa'. One of the watercolours in which North expresses his debt to Jefferies most overtly, Sir Bevis and the Woodwoman (1887-8), was sold in these Rooms, 13 November 1992, lot 94 (illustrated in catalogue).

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