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Copyright © 2008-2010 Hargrave Fine Art, Geddington, Northants

William Tatton Winter

Carcassonne, France

The Painting

A watercolour measuring 10" x 12".

Signed Tatton Winter. Inscribed ‘Chateau Carcassonne’.

About the Artist

William Tatton Winter (1855-1928) was a landscape painter, born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester. He studied at the classes of the Manchester Board School and at Manchester Academy of Fine Art. He toured through Belgium and Holland and studied under Verlat at Antwerp. In 1896 he was made a Member of the Royal Society of British Artists. He exhibited from 1884, including at the Royal Academy (32), Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street (294), Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (43), and Walker’s Gallery, London (274).

The Subject

Carcassone, France. The walled city of Carcassonne in Languedoc has been occupied since the 6th century BC and was a fortified Roman town in the 4th century BC. In the 13th century it was given a second exterior enclosure and the château or castle was enlarged. Napoleon struck it off the list of fortified towns in 1804 and for the first half of the 19th century it was impoverished and neglected. Restoration works began in 1853 under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879). Works continued until 1911. In 1997 the City of Carcassonne was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The view in the painting is inside the city enclosures. It shows the east wall of the Counts’ château with, from right to left, the outline of the Tour des Casernes (Barracks Tower), the twin Tours de la Porte de l’Est (East Gate Towers), and the Tour Saint-Paul. The bridge leads over the enclosure to the Barbacane de l’Est (East Barbican). The church seen in the distance, across the city houses, is the Saint-Nazaire Basilica.