Attributed to Thomas Christopher Hofland

With Gooden & Fox, London;

From whom acquired by a private collector;

By whom anonymously sold, London Christie's, 11 June 2004, lot 40 (as Joshua Shaw);

With Mallet Fine Art, London, 2006 (as Attributed to Thomas Christopher Hofland);

With Daniel Hunt Fine Art, London;

From whom acquired by the present collector.

This poetic landscape offers a panoramic view of the Glossop Valley, Derbyshire, looking west towards Mottram and Hollingworth. With a thick plume of smoke billowing from its chimney, the silhouetted structure of Dinting Vale Mill occupies the left bank of the tranquil waterway. Also known as “Boggarts Mill”, the factory was built in 1817 but remained dormant until 1823, when it was purchased by Edmund Potter (1802-1883), grandfather of author-illustrator Beatrix Potter. Potter converted the mill into Dinting Vale Printworks, which later became the world’s largest calico printing factory.

The present painting was likely executed circa 1823-1824, shortly after Potter, who may have commissioned the work, acquired the mill. In the following years, this idyllic stretch of English countryside underwent rapid industrialization; by 1842, when the viaduct of the Manchester-Sheffield railway was built through Dinting, the landscape was dramatically altered. While this painting was at one point attributed to Joshua Shaw (1776-1860), the English artist emigrated to America in 1817, the same year that the mill was constructed and seven years before it was ever in use. Indeed, this evocative view painting can be attributed to Thomas Christopher Hofland, an itinerant artist whose landscapes, influenced by the ideals of the picturesque movement, reflect his deep appreciation for the natural beauty of Britain. Hofland was certainly painting in the vicinity of Dinting Vale in the mid-1820s, during which time his exhibited works at the Royal Academy included nearby views of The great cavern of the Peak of Derbyshire, and the ancient castle of the Peverils (1823) and A grinding mill near Sheffield (1825).