William Daniell

William Daniell was born in 1769, on Kingston-on-Thames.  On the death of his father, Daniell went to live with his uncle Thomas Daniell, a landscape painter.  William’s brother Samuel also became an artist and is best known for his portrayal of the topography of South Africa.  In 1786, at the age of 15 William Daniell accompanied his uncle to India, where he worked as his assistant in preparing drawings for a series of prints of the Indian landscape.  There was a great demand for these at a time when European interest in the sub-continent was rapidly explanding.  For the following twelve years William and his uncle travelled widely in India, recording in fine detail the atmosphere and topography of the places they visited .  On their return to England in 1794 William spent the following seven years perfecting his skills in printing and aquatinting which was to result in his great work “Oriental Scenery” a six part collection of aquatints published over the period 1795–1808, It was acknowledged as a classic travel work which was to influence both the decorative arts and British architectural design.

After his return from India,William Daniell concentrated on scenes in the British Isles and in 1822 was elected an RA.   In 1813  he embarked on what was to be his greatest artistic project: a sketching tour around the coast of the British Isles in preparation for a series of 308 coloured prints for a “A Voyage Round Great Britain”  published in eight volumes over the period 1814 -1825.  The atmospheric effects that Daniell was able to convey in aquatint were very highly regarded, particularly in his portrayal of ships and maritime scenery.  “Steamboat on the Clyde near Dumbarton” in the Anderson Trust Collection dates from this tour and clearly demonstrates the artist’s talent in this medium.  In the following twenty years before his death in 1837, Daniell continued working energetically, concentrating mainly on maritime themes and on a highly acclaimed series of aquatints of Windsor and Virginia Water.  His work is held in national collections such as Tate Britain, The British Library, National Maritime Museum.

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“Steamboat on the Clyde near Dumbarton”  was published in 1817.  William Daniell visited the Clyde in 1815 not long after the launch of the first steamboat on the Clyde, the “Comet”, built for Henry Bell of the Bath’s  Hotel, Helensburgh by John Wood of Port Glasgow.  Her first voyage was on 6^th August 1812 when she sailed “by the power of Wind, Air and Steam” from Port Glasgow to the Broomielaw in three and a half hours.  Apart from the tall funnel there is little similarity between the two craft.

Work in Anderson Trust Collection

“Steamboat on the Clyde near Dumbarton”  William Daniell

            coloured aquatint