This watercolor is one of a group I purchased from a seller in England, which had previously been bound together as a booklet. The remainder are wonderful depictions of animals — black cow, greyhound, etc. This one, however, portraying Dick Turpin and The Brothers' Gibbet at Gonerby, was made after a well-known print c. late 1830s, which I have included in photos. That print was one of a set of eight depicting the life of infamous English highway bandit Dick Turpin (1705-1739) and Black Bess, his trusted horse, which were made famous by the Victorian novelist Willian Harrison Ainsworth in the novel Rookwood, published in 1834, almost 100 years after Turpin's death.
This particular image shows Turbin and Black Bess arriving at Gonerby Hill where he encounters Barbara, “the gyspy queen,” mourning the execution of her twin sons, whose bodies hang (like “scarecrow objects”) on the gibbet—a scene which foreshadows Turpin’s own death by hanging to follow. The text at the bottom of the watercolor reads as follows: Arrived at Gonerby hill, Turpin’s eyes fell upon two scarecrow objects covered with rags and rusty links depending from a gibbet, Will this be my lot said he. Ay marry will it said a figure springing forward. It was Barbara the Gipsey Queen.
I find this striking watercolor a thousand times more interesting and affecting than the print it was made after, with the black black of the horse and hanging figures lending it a whole different kind of change and resonance, and the watery pink and green of Turpin and Barbara’s clothing linking their fates, both soon to die themselves. Not for everyone I’m sure, but to me a powerful and haunting as well as just stunning image.
8 1/4” x 6 5/8” on wove paper. Very good condition, with a rough upper edge from where it was sewn and some scattered spotting, which I don’t think detracts a bit.
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