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Book of costume drawings, George Orleans Delamotte (fl.1809-1830)

Reference: Drawing volume DV271

George Delamotte was a member of an English family of artists. His brother William (1775-1863) was an artist who worked in watercolour and oil that produced fine landscapes of north Wales. It's possible that William Alfred (fl. 1825-55) and his brother P. H. Delamotte were William's sons.

 

George was an art teacher in Sandhurst, Reading and London and in 1809 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, London. By ca. 1818 it's possible that he lived in Bath. From there he visited south Walian gentry. He visited Aberpergwm in 1818 and Swansea in 1825. About the end of the 1820s he published a series of prints of landscapes of the Neath valley.

The fine watercolours in this volume show characters from various parts of South Wales in their everyday clothes. They give us an idea of the dress of ordinary people at the beginning of the nineteenth century, often showing signs of the poverty and hardship of their lives. Several of the characters are painted in well-known locations in some Welsh towns and villages, e.g. Swansea's market square. There are some examples of native Welsh traditions, such as that of the man carrying a coracle on his back, and of Mrs Gwyn carrying a baby in a shawl using the 'Welsh method'.

Further reading

  • Paul Joyner. Artists in Wales c.1740-c.1851, Aberystwyth : National Library of Wales, 1997.