Description
A watercolour drawing of the Norman Gateway, Windsor Castle, seen from the Moat Garden. At the centre, a pedimented facade with sash windows. In the foreground, a boy is watering a circular bed at the centre of the garden, watched by a dog. The sheet is circumscribed with a black ink line and broad black wash border, and is mounted on a yellow and black wash line bordered mount.
As with many watercolours formerly owned by Sir Joseph Banks, there is a related bodycolour of the same view, with more figures, in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B1981. 25. 2691). A pencil drawing of the same subject, slightly further to the right, is in the Staatliche Museen Greiz (E 469).
The dry ditch surrounding the Round Tower is well sheltered and the northern area has long been used as a flower garden. The southern ditch was formerly used for the cultivation of fruit and vegetables, but in 1836 this ended after Sir Jeffrey Wyatville warned that it might cause the collapse of the Round Tower and its boundary wall. The apartment seen at the back of the garden with the mid-eighteenth century pedimented facade was the Home of the Deputy Governor and then Castle Housekeeper. At this date it was the home of Lady Mary Churchill, Horace Walpole's half-sister, in her role as Castle Housekeeper.
Image Licence
All Rights Reserved
Image Credit
Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017
Location
Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England
Country
England
Medium
Watercolour
Tags
Category
Buildings & Architecture
