Cleveland Museum of Art

Bray Church Yard

John VarleyLinkedCulture matchlcp-11ddeb5809c3

Date: 1807
Medium: watercolor and graphite
Culture: England, 19th century
Department: Drawings
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 119729

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

The inscription on the reverse of this drawing, "Bray Church Yard-1807," likely refers to St. Michael’s, the parish church in the village of Bray on the banks of the Thames in the county of Berkshire. The banks of the lower Thames Valley provided the subject matter for many of John Varley’s early watercolors. His pursuit of the picturesque led the artist to turn his back on London and its connotations of commerce and industry, focusing instead on the rural aspects of the scene. Although rare, John Varley's early watercolors are considered his most inspired work.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Bequest of James Parmelee
Provenance: 1912: (sale, Victor G. Fischer Company Collection, Anderson Galleries, New York, February 19, 1912, no. 655) | probably 1912-1931: James Parmelee [1855-1931], Washington, DC, by descent to Alice Maury Parmelee, Washington, DC | 1931-1940: Alice Maury Parmelee [1862-1940], Washington, DC, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH | 1940-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH