Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering for sale this large and lovely watercolour by the artist Charles Alfred Bool, who has signed the painting verso and inscribed it 'On the Colwyn N. Wales C. A. Bool', as shown.

The Afon Colwyn (English: River Colwyn) is a small river in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, a tributary of the Afon Glaslyn.

It has its source on the south-western flank of Snowdon. It first flows west to cross the A4085 Caernarfon to Beddgelert road at Pont Cae'r Gors just south of Rhyd Ddu, then flows south parallel to the A4085 to Beddgelert. On the way it is joined by two tributaries, Afon Cwm-du and Afon Meillionen. At Beddgelert it joins the Glaslyn, to then flow south to Tremadog Bay near Porthmadog.
The Colwyn is a short and fast-flowing river. It generally carries less water than the Glaslyn, but water levels can rise very rapidly when there is heavy rain.

Charles Alfred Bool, was born on the 22nd September 1876, in Bath, Somerset, the son of a publican. In the 1891 Census, Charles was still living with his parents and 5 of their 6 children, where his father Henry J. Bool, son Henry (aged 15) and Charles A. (aged 14) were all listed as landscape painters. 

By 1901, Henry J. was listed as a publican at The Marlboro Tap in Bath and Charles, then 24, as an artist. In the 1921 Census, Charles was living with his father, mother and wife Gertrude A. nee Phillips, who he had married in 1916 and was listed as an artist in oils.

In the 1939 Register, he and his wife were liv ing at 22 Lambridge Place in Bath and he was still listed as an artist. He died in Bath in 1942.

We get the impression that the majority of his early work was in watercolours and he only latterly turned to oils as there are not that many that have entered the art market, although they were of very good quality. He specialised in river and waterfall views, many of which were in Wales. He is occasionally listed in error as Charles A. Boot.

NB. Alfred Henry Bool was not his son, as sometimes claimed, but a Wimbledon artist who was born in 1844 and died in 1926. He had been a photographer and was only active as an artist in the first 20 years of the 20th Century. He may have been distantly related to Charles.

The painting has been newly double mounted in two-tone acid-free mountboard and is newly framed in a 1 1/8 inch gil frame. It will be supplied with new brass hangers, new brass picture wire and will be ready to hang.

Image size: 21 1/2 x 14 3/4 inches - 54.6cm x 37.5cm

Frame size: 29 1/2 x 23 1/8 inches - 74.9cm x 58.6cm

Medium: Watercolours on paper

Condition: Very good. There is no foxing and the colours are strong. The mounts and frame are new.