John Gadsby Chapman (1808–1889)

JOHN GADSBY CHAPMAN (1808–1889)
The Man Who Caught a Fish in the Serpentine, London, 1848
Watercolor, 8 13/16 x 12 13/16 in., on original mount, 11 x 16 1/2 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed (in ink, at lower right): The Man who caught a fish in the Serpentine—London Augt 13, 1848—JGC [monogram]; (in ink, on original mount, across the bottom): The Man who Caught a Fish in the Serpentine, London / Aug. 13–1848. JGC [monogram]—(J. G. Chapman)

RECORDED: H. R. McIlwaine, “Collection of Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, etc., by John Gadsby Chapman and Conrad Wise Chapman in the Virginia State Library,” Bulletin of the Virginia State Library XII (July–October 1919), p. 89: “Sheet XVI. There is only one painting on this sheet. This is a water color, by J.G. Chapman of himself. On the picture the artist has written this statement: ‘The Man who Caught a Fish in the Serpentine, London, Aug. 13, 1848, J.G.C.’”

EXHIBITED: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1962–63, John Gadsby Chapman: Painter and Illustrator, pp. 16 fig. 47, 29 no. 47, lent by the Valentine Museum // Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, 1987, In Pursuit of Sport, lent by the Valentine Museum

EX COLL.: the artist; to his son, Conrad Wise Chapman, until 1904; to Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, 1904–40; transferred to the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia, 1940; to sale, Northeast Auctions, Manchester, New Hampshire, November 7, 2004, no. 1152 illus.; to private collection, 2004 until the present

Early in 1848, Chapman and his family moved to London, where in August of that year he executed this watercolor, a self-portrait which he humorously titled The Man Who Caught Fish in the Serpentine, London. The Serpentine, which takes its name from its mellifluous shape, is a large lake in Hyde Park, London, which was dredged in 1730 at the request of reigning Queen Charlotte.