Anthony Van Dyke Copley Fielding was one of the leading watercolourists of his generation. His classically-inspired views of the British countryside celebrate the elements and bring you closer to nature itself.
There’s a sense of openness - an encouragement to breathe it all in. As if you could feel a breeze across an undulant landscape or a forceful gale amid a storm at sea.
Fielding worked across the British Isles, from the Sussex Downs to the mountains of North Wales and the expansive lakes of the Highlands.
Inspired by the father of landscape painting, Richard Wilson, his works carry an idealised beauty and focus less on rustic charm.
The prominent art critic John Ruskin held Fielding in high regard.
“No man has ever given, with the same flashing freedom, the race of a running tide under a stiff breeze, nor caught, with the same grace and precision, the curvature of the breaking wave, arrested or accelerated by the wind.”
Anthony Van Dyke Copley Fielding exhibited 327 works at the Royal Watercolour Society and 17 paintings at the Royal Academy. Today, he’s represented in many public collections including the V&A, British Museum, Tate, Wallace Collection and Berlin National Gallery.
1787
Born in Sowerby, United Kingdom.
1809
Studied under John Varley.
1811
Debuted at the Royal Academy.
1812
Debuted at the British Institution.
1813
Became a member of the Royal Watercolour Society.
1824
Won a gold medal at the Paris Salon alongside John Constable and Richard Parkes Bonington.
1831
Became President of the Royal Watercolour Society.
1855
Died in Worthing, United Kingdom.