The Works Of The Late Edward Dayes: Containing An Excursion through the Principal Parts Of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, With Illustrative Notes By E.W. Brayley; Essays On Painting; Instructions For Drawing and Coloring Landscape; And Professional Sketches Of Modern Artists.

Edward Dayes

RA Collection: Book

Record number

05/2108

Author

Variant Title

Excursion through the principal parts of Derbyshire and Yorkshire
Essays on painting
Instructions for drawing and coloring landscape
Professional sketches of modern artists

Imprint

London:: Printed by T. Maiden, Sherbourn-Lane, Lombard-Street. Published By Mrs. Dayes, 42, Devonshire-Street, Queen-Square; White, Fleet-Street; Vernor And Hood, Poultry; Longman, Hurst, Rees, And Orme, Paternoster-Row; W.J. And J. Richardson, Royal Exchange; Asperne, Cornhill; Stockdale, Piccadilly; Carpenter, Old Bond-Street; And E.W. Brayley, Wilderness-Row., 1805.

Physical Description

[16], 359, [1] p., frontis. (port.), add. engr. t.-pl., [8], 2, [9] pl.; 262 mm. (Quarto.)

General Note

The Royal Academy's copy has 9 extra pl. at end, i.e. variant states of the t.pl. vignette and the 8 unnumbered pl.

Contents

[Frontis., add. engr. t.-pl. with vignette, t.p., dedic.] - List Of Subscribers; Directions for placing the Engravings [lists frontis., eight pl. and two numbered pl.] - Advertisement By The Editor [E.W. Brayley] - An Excursion Through The Principal Parts Of Derbyshire And Yorkshire [with 8 pl.] - Essays On Painting [with 2 numbered pl.] - Instructions For Drawing And Coloring Landscapes - Professional Sketches Of Modern Artists - [Nine extra pl., i.e. variant states of the engr. t.pl. vignette and of the eight pl. of the Excursion].

Responsibility Note

The frontispiece portrait of Dayes is signed as painted by E. Dayes and engraved by W. Hall. The title-plate vignette is signed as painted by E. Dayes and engraved by W. and G. Cooke; and its script is signed as engraved by Girtin. The eight unnumbered plates are signed as painted by E. Dayes and engraved by J.C. Smith [1, 6], W. Angus [2, 5], L.C. Smith [3], S. Noble [4], J. Roffe [7], W. and G. Cooke [8]. The two numbered plates illustrating Dayes's essay on grace are unsigned, but name the source-artists as Parmegiano, Carlo Maratti, M. Angelo and Mortimer.

The extra plates bound in at the end of the Royal Academy's copy vary from those bound into the body of the book and appear to be earlier states. The version of the title-plate vignette is signed as painted by G. Arnald and etched ('A.F. fect.') by W. and G. Cooke. None of the other eight is signed by a draughtsman except the eighth, which is signed, 'Painted by G. Arnald from a sketch by Edd. Dayes 1803'. Only four of the eight are signed by their engravers: [1] as by Joseph C. Smith; [2] and [5] as by 'Angus Aquafortis'; [8] as 'Etched by W. & G Cooke 1805'. Captions are carried only by the version of the t.pl. vignette ('Roche Abbey York.') and that of the eighth pl. ('Ouse Bridge, York'); and none carries a publisher's imprint.

The eight plates bound with the text, the frontispiece and added engraved title-plate all carry the publisher's imprint - 'for Mrs. Dayes' (frontis. and pl. [1, 3,5, 6] or 'by Mrs. Dayes' (t.pl. vignette and pl. [2, 4, 7, 8]), and all but one [6] carry the date 1805 (or May 25 1805 or June 10 1805). None of the extra plates has the publisher's imprint.

The work is dedicated by E.W. Brayley to the Duchess of York [Frederica Charlotte].

References

D.B. Brown, 'Edward Dayes: historical draughtsman', in Old Water-colour Society's Club, 62 (1991), p.9-21. M. Andrews, The search for the picturesque (1989); M. Rosenthal, British landscape painting (1982); Presences of nature: British landscape 1780-1830, ed. L. Hawes [exhibition catalogue] (1982).

Summary Note

After studying at the Royal Academy Schools (1780) Dayes exhibited regularly at the Academy from 1786 onwards - chiefly topographic views and figure subjects - but struggled to make a commercial success of his career and in May 1804 committed suicide. This collection was put together by Brayley for the benefit of Dayes's widow (herself a miniaturist, who had exhibited at the Academy between 1797 and 1800).

Dayes's Excursion through Derbyshire and Yorkshire was made in 1803, and his text, although often religious in tone, shows the variability of his moods. In his Essays on painting (first published in the Philosophical magazine for 1801-2) he draws attention to the artist's moral role, emphasises the need for selectivity in the process of landscape-painting and deprecates landscapes of 'effects'. His Instructions show him an innovative teacher, and include a commendation of sketching in colours from nature. His Sketches of artists are brief, and sometimes sharply critical.

The plates almost all relate to Dayes's Excursion in Derbyshire and Yorkshire. All but one are captioned, and they show: [frontis.] self-portrait of 'Mr. Edward Dayes, late Draughtsman to H.R.H. the Duke of York'; [t.pl. vignette] 'Roche Abbey Yorkshire'; [1] 'Dove Dale, Derbyshire'; [2] 'Roche Abbey, Yorkshire'; [3] 'Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire'; [4] 'Middleham Castle Yorkshire'; [5] 'Hack-Fall, Yorkshire'; [6] 'Rippon Minster, Yorkshire'; [7] 'Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire'; [8] 'Ouse Bridge, York'; I. 'Examples of grace'; II. [untitled, showing an arm 'Destitute of grace' and arms 'gracefully varied'].

Dayes's self-portrait may be seen at the National Portrait Gallery, London; other paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Gallery, London, the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, Yale University CBA and elsewhere.

Reproductions

A copy of this book from the collection of the New York Public Library has been digitised and made available online via the Hathi Trust digital library.
A facsimile with new introduction was published in 1971.

Binding Note

20th-century red cloth-covered boards; spine lettered 'Works Dayes', 'R.A.' and '1805'.

Name as Subject

Subject

Landscapes (environments) - Natural landscapes - Rural areas - Monasteries - Great Britain - Derbyshire - Yorkshire - Description and travel - 19th century
Painting - Drawing - Watercolor - Landscapes (representations) - Techniques
Artists - Painters - Watercolorists - Great Britain - History - 18th century - 19th century
Views - Travel sketches - Memoirs - Biography - Travel literature - Manuals - Great Britain - 19th century
Pictorial works - Great Britain - 19th century

Contributors

Edward Dayes, source artist
Edward Wedlake Brayley, editor, publisher
Frederica Charlotte, Duchess of York, dedicatee
Thomas Maiden, printer
Mrs. Dayes
John White, publisher
Thomas Hood, publisher
William Richardson
James Asperne, publisher
John Stockdale, publisher
James Carpenter, publisher
W. Hall, engraver
William Bernard Cooke, engraver
George Cooke, engraver
Girtin, script engraver
Joseph Clarendon Smith, engraver
William Angus, engraver
L. C. Smith, engraver
Samuel Noble, engraver
John Roffe, engraver
George Arnald ARA, source artist
Vernor and Hood (London), publisher
Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, publisher
William, James and John Richardson (London), publisher