Five Stylised Watercolour Studies of Insects

Description:

A group of five early watercolour drawings by Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924), created when the artist was just fifteen years old. The studies depict four butterflies and moths, along with a grasshopper, rendered in a delicate and stylised manner influenced by oriental art, which was in vogue during the mid-19th century. Notably, the grasshopper's wings have been painted on rice paper and affixed to the sheet, with the remainder of the body completed in watercolou.

Each drawing is signed and dated 1856 in pencil to the reverse. A later pencil inscription records that the collection was presented by Mr. Swinfen Harris Junior of Stony Stratford in 1928.

Though best known today as an architect of national standing, described by Pevsner as 'the only outstanding local architect working in the north of the county [Buckinghamshire]', Harris’s youthful talent for natural history illustration offers a rare glimpse into his early artistic development. He would go on to practise as an architect in both London and Stony Stratford.

A charming and uncommon survival from the formative years of a notable Victorian architect.

Condition

Loose drawings, (205x175mm or smaller).