Edward Duncan (1803-1882), a water-colour painter

Watercolor painting

Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...

, was born in London in 1803. He was articled

Articled clerk

An articled clerk, also known as an articling student, is an apprentice in a professional firm in Commonwealth countries. Generally the term arises in the accountancy profession and in the legal profession. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a...

 to Robert Havell

Havell family

The Havell family of Reading, Berkshire, England included a number of notable engravers, etchers and painters, as well as writers, publishers, educators, and musicians. In particular, members of this family were foremost practitioners of aquatint; and had a long association with Indian art and...

, the aquatint

Aquatint

Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching.Intaglio printmaking makes marks on the matrix that are capable of holding ink. The inked plate is passed through a printing press together with a sheet of paper, resulting in a transfer of the ink to the paper...

 engraver, and was thus afforded frequent opportunities of studying, and occasionally of copying, the works of William Havell

William Havell

William Havell was an English landscape painter, one of the Havell family of artists, and a founding member of the Society of Painters in Watercolours.-Life and work:...

. These developed his taste for drawing and the use of colour, and in 1831 he became a member of the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours

Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours

The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours , initially called the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, , is one of the societies in the Federation of British Artists, based in the Mall Galleries in London.-History:In 1831 the society was founded as the New Society of Painters in Water...

, but he afterwards withdrew, and in 1849 was elected an Associate of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours

Royal Watercolour Society

The Royal Watercolour Society is an English institution of painters working in watercolours...

, and a full member in the following year. He died in London in 1882. His drawings comprise a wide range of subjects, treated with much grace and great truthfulness to nature, but his larger and more important works are chiefly coast scenery, with shipping and craft admirably characterized. Among the best of them are the following:

• The Shipwreck. 1859.
• The Life-Boat. 1860.
• Blue Lights.
• Oyster Dredgers — Swansea Bay.
• Landing Fish on the Sands at Whitby.
• Fishing Boats making for the Harbour of Boulogne — early morning.