William Daniell RA: Aquatint of Berwick on Tweed

A really beautiful image of Berwick on Tweed from surrounding hills, showing the river and the old stone Berwick Bridge. The quality of light on the water is particularly striking. William Daniell RA (1769-1837) was an English landscape and marine painter and printmaker, notable for his work in aquatint. In 1813, he started work on his greatest achievement: a series of aquatints for A Voyage Round Great Britain which he published with his friend Ayton between 1814-25. There were 308 illustrations done for this work of which this, of Berwick on Tweed, is one, dated 1822. Daniell was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1822. A curiosity of this piece is the blindstamp top left which is the stamp of the Earlswood Asylum. Originally called the Asylum for Idiots, it was set up in 1847 as the first institution to specialise in learning difficulties. Renamed The Earlswood Institution of Mental Defectives in 1926, it is where two of the late Queens first cousins were cared for! It is not known why this institution had a copy of William Daniells aquatint!