SIR ERNEST ALBERT WATERLOW RA PRWS (1850-1919)

Condition

Original frame

Literature

Royal Academy Illustrated, 1913, illustrated page 24

Exhibition History

London, Royal Academy, 1913, number 384

Description / Expertise

At the very beginning of his career, Ernest Waterlow, in the footsteps of the Pre-Raphaelite landscapists, made an artistic pilgrimage to Switzerland and specifically the mountains and valleys of the Bernese Oberland. John Ruskin had first expounded his passion for this breathtaking scenery the forth volume of Modern Painters (published 1856) and encouraged artist to make the journey.

On his return to London in 1872, Ernest Waterlow, enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools. Although he exhibited there almost every year, his subjects were chosen from closer to home, for example Galway Gossips which was bought for the National Collection in 1887.

Sir Ernest Waterlow continued, however to reminisce over the haunting beauty of the Swiss Alps throughout his life, and particularly during the unsettling years leading up to and during the First World War. Between 1913 and 1916 at least nine of his twenty three exhibits at the Royal Academy were Swiss subjects.