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Nesfield, William Andrews

William Andrews Nesfield (1793 - 1881) was born in Chester-le Street, County Durham.


He was educated at Durham School, Winchester College and Trinity College Cambridge and then joined the army having a distinguished military career including fighting with Wellington in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo. He retired from the army in 1816 and began a second career as a successful water - colourist, exhibiting with The Old Water Colour Society  gaining praise from John Ruskin in his work Modern Painters. He painted in Northumberland, the Alps, Wales, Yorkshire and Scotland.


In addition, he developed a third career  as a landscape architect and was responsible for collaborating on many commissions including Castle Howard, Alnwick Castle garden and Kew Gardens. He was particularly interested in water features, which his military experience, apparently, helped him to design.


Nesfield also visited Arran during a tour of Scotland and his painting Circle of Stones, Tormore, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is a striking dramatic water – colour of the Machrie Moor stone circles. This painting was probably exhibited in 1828 at The Old Water Colour Society as Druidical Temple of Tormore Arran. Nesfield died in 1881


References:


https://artnet.com/artists/williams-andrews-nesfield

https://www.collections.vam.ac.uk/circle-of-stones-near-tomore

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