The works by William Tatton Winter and associates in this au...

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The works by William Tatton Winter and associates in this auction are from the collection of a connoisseur who, as a small boy, would venture upon to Reigate Heath to watch Tatton Winter at work and it became a lifelong quest to acquire these works. The collector passed away in 1997 and the collection was bequeathed to the current custodian to whom he was a friend and mentor. They used to travel the country together attending auctions whenever a Tatton Winter cropped up.

William Tatton Winter (1855-1928), RBA, was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. He showed an early aptitude for drawing, but times were hard and on leaving school he was obliged to take a job in a foundry, studying art in the evenings. Through his studies he met Ford Maddox Brown, an associate of the Pre-Raphaelites who took an interest in the young artist and gave him valuable advice. During the 1870s William Tatton Winter studied at the Manchester Academy of Fine Art and joined the Manchester Athenaeum Graphic Club. To supplement his art, he took up teaching. His sketching classes were popular on account of his helpfulness to his students.

In 1883, Tatton Winter settled in Carshalton in Surrey where he set up his studio and it was in that year that he spent five months at the Antwerp Academy, studying art under Charles Verlat. During this time Tatton Winter established himself as a serious exhibiting artist and from 1885 he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists. He became a member in 1896 and was to exhibit often. In 1889, he exhibited 'A Breezy Upland, Sussex' at the Royal Academy where he exhibited regularly until 1925, showing thirty-two paintings,

On 9 January 1886 he married his 'first and only love', Edith Constance Fox Hudson, a Yorkshire girl, the daughter of Thomas Hudson, a solicitor. They remained in Carshalton for a while before moving to live in Reigate, Surrey.

Tatton Winter painted in oil and watercolour and exhibited at many leading galleries on the continent as well as those in London. He made many trips to France, Holland and Belgium and made a point of visiting art galleries wherever he happened to be. He would have been aware of the work of the ‘Little’ Dutch and Flemish Masters. His work in Belgium and Holland appears to show clear signs of the influence of Hobbema and Cuyp whose work would have been known to him. There are similarities not only in composition, subject matter and style, but also in scale and colour. Tatton Winter selected tree-lined tracks, roads or canals as the central feature and complemented this with either peasant people or animals. He developed atmosphere with very subtle brushwork of his trees. In England traditional landscape painters David Cox and Alfred East were much admired by him. David Cox’s ‘Treatise on Landscape Painting in Oil Colour’ was published in 1906 and ‘Brush and Pencil Notes in Landscape’ in 1914.

The early watercolours in Tatton Winter’s oeuvre were clearly defined and fresh, using bright colours in fluid strokes. His landscape became increasingly atmospheric, the trees often softly defined with shimmering foliage in wispy silver-hued ambiance. The windswept trees and heath land which he produced in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century have similarities with the work of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. There is little doubt his art was fuelled by a profound love of the natural world.

All of the etchings produced by Tatton Winter appear to have been printed and published by Museum Galleries, in Museum Street, London. The proprietor was a Mr G J Howells. He was responsible for the production of etchings, mezzotints and stippled engravings for a great many accomplished artists. The quality of the printings by Museum Galleries was particularly fine and Howells appears to have been quite selective in the artists he chose to put into print. Tatton Winter produced at least three series of coloured etchings – Canterbury, Salisbury and France. Selected subjects from these series were also reproduced in black and white. Museum Galleries sold the etchings either individually or as a set in a

portfolio which was customised by the inclusion of the purchaser’s name embossed in gold leaf on the cover.

Many of Tatton Winter’s watercolours were also reproduced in coloured etchings by his friend and fellow artist Dr David Donald. In 1927, Tatton Winter painted a series of more than one hundred watercolours of Winchester which were sold through the art dealers Henry Graves & Co. of Sloane Street, London. Before passing the watercolours to Graves or perhaps after Tatton Winter’s death, David Donald must have taken the opportunity to etch plates of some of them. A series of coloured etchings by David Donald ‘After Tatton Winter’ were published by Museum Galleries. It is not known how many works were published but Museum Galleries held a retrospective exhibition of watercolours and etchings in 1931 and advertised Dr Donald’s work at five guineas per etching.

William Tatton Winter’s son Cecil was also an etcher and also had his work published by Museum Galleries. Cecil was by no means as prolific as his father and appears to have worked closely with the artist Edward King. There is some confusion with Cecil’s work as many of his etchings were after Edward King’s work but were also signed by King. He was a competent draughtsman who produced coloured and black and white etchings.

Tatton Winter used to exchange small hand painted watercolour greetings cards with friends. Two examples from his friend Henry John Sylester Stannard are in this sale.

William Tatton Winter died suddenly at his home, on 22 March 1928, having just returned from a visit to his doctor.