A highly appreciated Swiss in England

Putting together an exhibition of Samuel Grimm’s works is no easy task. His production was enormous and his many watercolors and drawings are scattered. Some were pasted into books by private collectors and therefore cannot be shown, while others are tucked away in private collections, obscure museums, and specialized archives. The present exhibition, however, brings together 92 works of different subjects that together provide a larger image of an artist much respected and highly appreciated in his own time, but little known in ours.

Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, Haverfordwest, 1791. Tinte und Aquarell über Graphit, 24,1 x 34,3 cm, New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

In my own studies of eighteenth-century painting, particularly the presence of Swiss painters in London, I was much surprised to learn that Grimm, however significant a figure for later eighteenth-century watercolor painting, was never the object of a retrospective exhibition. The only monograph devoted wholly to his life and work was published in 1941. Although an important book, much new research since has added much new material about Grimm’s painting, his patrons, and his importance. After having seen some of his work anew in the British Museum in 2007, I decided the time was ripe to delve more carefully into Grimm’s art. Most intriguing was the huge number of topographical works he produced in England, where he lived for almost three decades, many of which had never been published before. I visited most of the sites Grimm painted, particularly in Wales where he toured in 1777, to see for myself the landscapes he created, sometimes in very rude conditions. My admiration for Grimm’s views, as well as his quirky sense of humor seen in his caricatures, has only increased as a result. The exhibition, therefore, should open a new door of discovery of a Swiss painter whose eminence surpassed his contemporaries.

Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, Tintern Abbey, 1780? Aquarell, 26,5 x 37 cm, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales

Veröffentlicht unter Gastbeitrag
Schlagwörter: Aquarell, England, Grimm