Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011216The Wood Gatherers
About the Artwork
John William North’s watercolors of the rural landscape of Somerset unite the seemingly contradictory states of minutely rendered detail with atmospheric effects. Herbert Alexander, the artist’s biographer, described the artist’s interpretation of nature as similar to that of a poet, suggesting rather than describing: "In watercolor and oil an effect of intricate detail is found on examination to be quite illusive—multitudinous form is conjured by finding and losing it in endless hide-and-seek till the eye accepts infinity."
Inscriptions
inscribed, lower left, in white gouache: N and in ochre: 69
Provenance
?-?: William Graham, M.P., Glasgow 1886: (sale, Christie's, London, April 2, 1886, no. 29) 1973: (sale, Christie's, London, October 1, 1973, no. 59) 1978: (Shepherd Gallery, New York) ?-2013: Helen and Albert Borowitz, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH 2013-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- John William North (British, 1842–1924)
- Date
- 1869
- Medium
- watercolor and gouache with scratch-away and touches of shell gold
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 40.5 x 56.3 cm (15 15/16 x 22 3/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift in memory of Helen Borowitz
- Accession no.
- 2013.239
Open-access museum record · AT-00011216
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