Studio: international art (84.1922)

THE VICTOR RIENAECKER COL-
LECTION. BY H. M. CUNDALL,
I.S.O., F.S.A. 0000

IN the formation of his collection it has
been the aim of Mr. Victor Rienaecker
to acquire representative examples of the
work of British landscape painters, both
in oil and water-colours, from the time of
Wilson to the end of the last century.
He has admirably succeeded in his pur-
pose, and has secured more than two
hundred valuable paintings and drawings.
The water-colour drawings forming the
more predominant portion, it is proposed
to deal with them in the first place, and
to refer to the oil paintings later. The
key to the collection is a delicate pencil
drawing by Richard Wilson, R.A. It
represents an Italian landscape with a
villa in the distance ; and was once in the
possession of Paul Sandby. 0 0

During his residence at Bath, Gains-
borough was accustomed to make chalk

and pencil drawings, to which local tints
in water-colour were occasionally added.
These were very popular, and were ex-
tensively imitated by amateurs in that
fashionable watering-place. This practice
became so much the rage that it was styled
the Gainsborough mania. The Cottagers
and a Study of Trees, slightly tinted, are
charming examples of the master's work
in this manner. Another tinted drawing,
The Entrance of Vauxhall Gardens, by
Thomas Rowlandson, displays the vivacity
of that gifted caricaturist. 000
Nearly all of the topographical draughts-
men are well represented in the collection.
The drawings are chiefly landscapes, and
not merely views of family mansions,
which were so extensively executed for
the engravers. Those by Sandby, Thomas
Glover, Joseph Farington and Barret, sen.,
are all landscapes, in which scenes the in-
fluence of Wilson is shown. A Landscape
Composition, by Paul Sandby, R.A., the
father of the topographical men, represents