The fifty plates are mounted on card, to the foot of which are pasted printed caption slips numbered 1-50 briefly identifying the artist and work reproduced. These correspond to the numbering given in single-leaf 'List of Plates'.
Contents
[Title leaf] - Dulwich Gallery. List Of Plates. 1(-50) - [Plates].
Responsibility Note
No plate is signed.
References
Life in England in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860 ... From The Library Of J.R. Abbey: A Bibliographical Catalogue (1972; repr. 1991), no. 201 [an issue with only 30 pl.]; R.V. Tooley, Some English Books With coloured plates (1935), no. 190; S.T. Prideaux, Aquatint Engraving (1909), p.334.
On the history of the Dulwich collection see Treasures of a Polish king, ed. A. Rottermund [exhibition catalogue] (1992); G. Waterfield, Collection for a king (1985); P. Murray, The Dulwich Picture Gallery: a catalogue (1980); J. Taylor, Memoir of Noel Desenfans (1810).
An account of the influence of Dutch on British landscape painting is The shock of recognition: the landscape of English Romanticism and the Dutch seventeenth-century school [exhibition catalogue] (1971).
Summary Note
No name of author, draughtsman, printer or publisher appears in this book. But Life in England ... From The Library Of J.R. Abbey ..., no. 201, describes an issue of 30 plates mounted on card with pasted captions, 'All marked: In the Dulwich Gallery, Drawn, engraved, and published by R. Cockburn, Dulwich'. Abbey dates the 30-plate issue to 'c.1830', but Tooley dates it to 1818 and this 50-plate issue to 1830. The captions in the Royal Academy's set do not agree exactly with those recorded in Abbey.
Many of the pictures of the Dulwich Picture Gallery had originally been part of a collection formed by Noel Desenfans for the King of Poland, which had been left on his hands in 1795. After Desenfans' death much of this collection passed to Dulwich College, in accordance with Desenfans' wish that it should be accessible to the public. Desenfans had also advocated the founding of a National Portrait Gallery.
Most of the paintings shown are landscapes, but a few are 'history paintings' on Biblical and Christian themes, or works of 'genre'. The List Of Plates and the captions name the source-artists as R. Wilson, Claude (3 pl.), A. Cuyp (7 pl.), P. Wouvermans (5 pl.), W. Vandevelde (4 pl.), N. Berchem (2 pl.), N. Poussin (2 pl.), D. Teniers (5 pl.), G. Poussin, A. Pynaker, Hobbima, Salvator Rosa (3 pl.), J. Both (4 pl.), Ruysdael (2 pl.), Le Nain, J. Wynants (2 pl.), Karel Du Jardin (2 pl.), Rembrandt, Murillo (2 pl.) and Guercino.
All plates are coloured aquatints.
Binding Note
19th-century half green morocco, green paper-covered boards; spine lettered 'Dulwich Gallery' and 'R.A.'
Landscapes (environments)
Paintings, European - Landscapes (representations) - 17th century
Collections - Art Galleries - Great Britain - London - History - 19th century
Catalogues - Great Britain - 19th century
Pictorial works - Aquatints - Great Britain - 19th century