Robert Batty
Robert Batty (born August 5, 1789 in London , † November 20, 1848 there ) was a British officer, painter , draftsman , watercolorist , etcher and illustrator .
Batty made a lasting name for himself internationally with his drawn views. Most of his drawings were copied, reproduced and distributed by other artists in copper and steel engravings .
education and profession
Batty was the son of the doctor Robert Batty (December 14, 1763 - November 16, 1849) from Hastings, a well-known art lover, who passed on his talent for drawing to his children (to Robert and his sister Elizabeth Frances [1791–1875], the Philip Martineau) married). At the age of 15, Batty accompanied his cousin Henry Bickersteth, later Lord Langdale, on a trip to Italy in 1804. He later studied medicine at Cambridge , but dropped out. He joined the British Army, fought in the Guard Grenadier Regiment both in Spain and in the Battle of Waterloo against Napoleon's armies and became an officer who took his leave with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (according to other information as Captain or Colonel ). He gave his impressions of the military time in etchings, such as The Campaign of the left wing of the allied army in the Western Pyrenees and South of France in 1813-14 .
Between 1822 and 1833 Batty worked as a watercolor painter, draftsman and etcher. He traveled to the Netherlands , Belgium , France and Germany and recorded his impressions in sketches and drawings. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society .
He was married to Johanna (nee Barrow), with whom he had several children.
Working method using the example of Hanoverian and Saxon Scenery
In 1825, Batty visited the Kingdom of Hanover , the homeland of his British King George IV : he filled the sketchbook with the signature “S III” on the back and the attachment of Batty's signature with 53 pencil drawings and the handwritten note “1. until August 25, 1825 ". The sketches were made in the order of the itinerary, each sketch was provided with location and date: From Hamburg over Bremen (market, Weser bridges), Verden and Nienburg to Hanover and on about Bückeburg and Minden Weser upwards as far as Kassel . A detour led from Hameln to Pyrmont , another from Karlshafen to the Trendelburg . Two pen drawings from Madrid and Burgos were later tied into the sketchbook . The 53 sketches served as a template for the copper engravings in the book Hanoverian and Saxon Scenery, which appeared in 1829 and were engraved by other artists, with full-page views and half-page vignettes . Batty wrote a reverent dedication to King George IV and explanatory texts in English and French. The other templates with images of Lübeck have been in the Museum for Art and Cultural History of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck since 1979.
The sketchbook was acquired by the Historisches Museum am Hohen Ufer in 1961 .
Works (incomplete)
- Campaign of the left wing of the Allied Army, in the Western Pyrenees and South of France, in the years 1813-14. J. Murray, London 1823.
- Robert Batty's sketchbook in wine-red morocco leather, 18.4 cm × 27.3 cm × 1.7 cm, cover framed with gold-embossed lines. Embossed in gold: initials RB on the lid , signature S III on the back . The book contains 54 sheets (drawing cardboard, slightly yellowish, with gilt edging), on it there are 53 pencil drawings from Lower Saxony as well as (bound) 2 pen and ink drawings from Madrid and Burgos.
- Robert Jennings: Scenery of the Rhine. Belgium and Holland from Drawings. 4 volumes, London 1826 ( archive.org ).
- Robert Batty: Hanoverian and Saxon Scenery, from Drawings by Lieutenant Colonel Batty, FRS Robert Jennings (Ed.), London 1829.
literature
- Lieut.-Colonel Robert Batty FRS In: The Art Journal. 1849, p. 20 (Obituary, left column, books.google.de ).
- Maurice W. Brockwell : Batty, Robert, Lieutenant Colonel FRS In: Ulrich Thieme , Felix Becker (Hrsg.): General encyclopedia of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. tape 3 : Bassano – Bickham . Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1909, p. 50 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- Manfred Hausmann, Helmut Plath : The sketchbook of Robert Batty / Lieut.t Colonel Romantic journey through Northern Germany / in 1825. Heinr. Feesche Verlag Hannover 1973 (The book reproduces the original size 41 of the 53 pencil drawings and, in addition to the original English and French texts from Hanoverian and Saxon Scenery, also has a German translation).
- Bernhard Dörries, Helmut Plath: Old Hanover / The history of a city in contemporary images from 1500-1900. Heinr. Feesche Verlag Hannover, fourth, improved edition, Hannover 1977, p. 140, illustrations p. 36 and 37.
- Museum for Art and Cultural History of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck: New Acquisitions 1974-1979. Lübeck 1980, pp. 50-51.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kindred Britain ( English ) Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- ↑ Elizabeth Frances Batty (1791-1875). In: co.uk. Retrieved July 10, 2020 .
- ↑ Obituary: Lieut.-Colonel R. Batty . In: The Gentleman's Magazine . tape 31 . John Bowyer Nichols and Son, London 1849, p. 207-208 ( books.google.de ).
- ^ Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
- ↑ Market in Bremen in Wolfgang Schwarze: Old Bremen city views. Kunst und Wohnenverlag, Wuppertal 1977, p. 50.
- ↑ Inventory numbers 1979 / 69–74 as a gift from Arend Oetker , acquired through Sotheby’s , London, in the Mentmore Towers auction in 1977.
- ↑ Inventory no. VM 29096
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Batty, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British painter, draftsman, illustrator, watercolourist and etcher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 5, 1789 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 20, 1848 |
| Place of death | London |