SAMUEL ATKINS

THE FRIGATE AT ANCHOR OFF COAST

SAMUEL ATKINS
Active 1787 – 1808
Watercolor on paper, signed "Atkins"
29.5 x 46.7 cm / 11.4 x 18.1 inches, with frame 48 x 65 cm / 18.9 x 25.6 inches

PROVENANCE
UK, private collection


The art of watercolor landscape in English art has a long tradition, but its Golden Age falls on the period of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Thomas Sandby, Alexander Cozens or David Cox become the biggest representatives of this genre, forming a kind of "aesthetic standard" for their followers and imitators. The genre of the seascape landscape developed in English art according to its own laws. In many ways, of course, it was inspired by the artistic and stylistic mainstream, but on the other hand, this genre has always been dominated by the percentage of amateur artists, military men and engineers who were forced to hold a pencil in their hands due to the nature of their service.
Many of their names, interesting and talented masters, whose independent and album sketches are scattered around the world, have remained unknown, but some of them were lucky.
Samuel Atkins just belongs to these "mysterious" masters, biographical information about which is incredibly scarce, but their legacy cannot leave you indifferent. It is known that Samuel Atkins exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1787 and 1796. From 1796 to 1804 he was in the East Indies. In 1804 he returned to London and again exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1804 to 1808. Then his name disappears and we can only guess how his further fate developed.
Samuel Atkins' work, meanwhile, is quite extensive, his legacy includes more than 200 watercolor works scattered around the world. Among museum collections, his work is shown in the British Museum and the Tate gallery in London, but especially interesting things are in the United States, at The Mariners' Museum and Park is located in Newport News, Virginia and at the Yale Center for British Art.

Wladyslaw MAXIMOWICZ