Windsor from Datchet

This watercolor looks towards Windsor Castle from a village east and downstream along the Thames. The castle's northeast tower rises in the distance as cattle graze on left bank and a moored skiff attests to evening calm below a setting sun. Collingwood Smith received early instruction from James Duffield Harding, then exhibited at the Royal Academy before joining the Society of Painters in Water-Colours (the "Old Water-Colour Society") as an associate in 1843. He was elected to full membership in 1849 and served the society as treasurer from 1854 until his death. He also ran a busy art school at Wyndam Lodge, on Brixton Hill in southwest London, offering instruction to amateurs, professionals, and military and naval officers. Herbert Richardson Houghton, who donated this drawing to the Museum in 1878, was a New Yorker who likely acquired the work in London.