Object Description
HENRY TANWORTH WELLS, RA
(1828-1903)
The Observers
Grisaille watercolour
Framed
11.5 by 16.5 cm., 4 ½ by 6 ½ in.
(frame size 28 by 32.5 cm., 11 by 12 ¾ in.)
Provenance:
From a folio of drawings by George Price Boyce, Henry Tamworth Wells and other members of the Wells family.
Henry Tanworth Wells was married to Joanna Boyce, the sister of the Pre-Raphaelite landscape painter George Price Boyce. Through this connection he became associated with the Pre-Raphaelite circle although he worked in a more traditional and academic style as a successful portrait and figure artist. He regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy, becoming a member in 1870. His most popular painting, Victoria Regina, which depicts Victoria hearing that she had become Queen is now in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London.
Wells was a member of the Artist’s Rifles, and the current study may be related to his large painting of Volunteers at the Firing-Point, 1866, now in the collection of the Royal Academy.