ALBERT GOODWIN RWS (1845-1932) Biography
PRE-RAPHAELITE (founded 1848) Biography

Exhibition History

London, Dudley Gallery, General Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, 1866, no.27

Description / Expertise

This early watercolour by Goodwin was exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1866. Its subject tallies with the exhibition title, and reviewers' descriptions confirm the identification. The Athenaeum mentioned the `still pool with trees'(1) and the Illustrated London News noted the sunset effect leading to extreme `oppositions of colour'.(2)

The exhibition opened in February, three months before the main London exhibition season, and was Goodwin's first opportunity to exhibit a work produced the previous autumn.

The painting was extensively and generally well reviewed. The Illustrated London News stated: Mr. Goodwin is an artist of whom much may be expected. (3) Highest praise came from the critic of the Saturday Review:

Aspen Trees in Autumn. Albert Goodwin. - This is one of the most remarkable works in the room. It is a thoroughly careful study of autumnal colour, great attention being evident at the same time paid to form, and to light and shade. So earnest an endeavour to unite the three great qualities of good painting is seldom met with. And the best of it is that on all three points the artist has succeeded. The trees are most gracefully drawn, the colour is very true, and the arrangement of light and shade so telling that the work would engrave well. (4)
At the beginning of his career, Goodwin had worked as an oil painter but in the 1860's he transferred his allegiance to watercolours. This change of medium would have been encouraged by such praise.

The Dudley Gallery was a natural choice of venue for Goodwin at this period of transition. The exhibition of the Old and New Watercolour Societies were restricted to the works of members and associates, and in the mid Nineteenth Century, artists who worked in oil as well as watercolour were rarely elected. The Royal Academy displayed watercolour work poorly.

The Dudley Gallery was founded in 1865 as an alternative open exhibition for watercolours. It attracted aspirants to the two older societies (in fact Goodwin was elected Associate of the Old Watercolour Society in 1872), as well as watercolours by established oil painters. Because it was run by a committee of young artists, it gained a reputation for liberalism and in the 1860's was favoured by the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers. Goodwin was a pupil of both Hughes and Madox Brown, and it is worth noting that the Dudley Gallery was the only London exhibition used by Madox Brown in this period.



1. The Athenaeum, London, 3 February, 1866, number 1997, page 177
2. The Illustrated London News, 17th February, 1866, page 166
3. Ibid
4. The Saturday Review, London, 7th April, 1866, page 414