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Notes

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John Downman produced some of the prettiest and most elegant of eighteenth-century portraits. He mainly worked in chalk and watercolour, but was also accomplished in oils. Downman was a pupil of Benjamin West and worked almost entirely on portrait heads and albums of drawings. The subject of this painting refers to the story of star-crossed lovers from Teesdale described in David Mallet’s poem ‘The Ballad of Edwin and Emma’ which had been published in 1760. Downman exhibited ‘Edwin and Emma’ at the Royal Academy in 1789 (no.84) with a reference to ‘Mallet's Poems’.

The Bowes Museum

Barnard Castle

Title

Edwin and Emma

Date

c.1789

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 44 x W 59 cm

Accession number

1975.22.2

Acquisition method

purchased, 1975

Work type

Painting

The Bowes Museum

Barnard Castle, County Durham DL12 8NP England

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Artist or maker

John Downman

1749–1824

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