Albert Goodwin, RWS (1845-1932) [Aw413]
ST. CATHERINE’S HILL AND ST. CROSS, WINCHESTER, 1874
Watercolour and body colour over pencil; signed and dated lower right: A. Goodwin/74 (H. 22 cm, W. 32 cm)
From an early age, Arthur Goodwin was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. As a young boy he lived in Maidstone in Kent, where he was a pupil of Arthur Hughes (1832–1915), and he later studied under Ford Madox Brown (1821–1893) in London. Perhaps his most formative influences were JMW Turner and the critic John Ruskin (1819–1900). After first meeting in 1863, Ruskin and Goodwin travelled together around Britain and to continental Europe, spending the Spring of 1872 in Italy and Switzerland, to which Goodwin returned alone the following year.
This view shows the countryside to the south of Winchester, about a mile from the College. On the left, partially hidden by trees, is the Hospital of St Cross, a medieval almshouse founded in the twelfth century and a subject that Goodwin returned to paint on many occasions. In the background is St Catherine’s Hill, identifiable by the distinctive clump of beech trees at its summit. The watercolour is part of a series of Winchester views produced by Goodwin in 1874, which includes scenes of the College, the inner quadrangle of St Cross, and the landscape between the two. Together, they provide a valuable record of Winchester’s topography in the Victorian era.
Goodwin continued to visit Winchester throughout his life. In 1909, he came to the College as a guest of Montague Rendall, then Second Master and later Headmaster, returning on several other occasions. Kenneth Clark, a pupil at Winchester from 1917 to 1922, remembered painting alongside Goodwin in the Warden’s Garden.
Provenance: Unknown