Senin, 31 Oktober 2011

Edward Lear - Beirut, Lebanon



Price Realized
£23,750

signed, inscribed and dated 'Edward Lear/1858/Beirut.' (lower left)
pen and ink and watercolour with gum arabic heightened with touches of white, on paper
6½ x 10¼ in. (16.5 x 26 cm.)
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/edward-lear-beirut-lebanon/5396400/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=7&intObjectID=5396400&sid=e107da45-4c75-42f8-9c76-d62ad90fe2bd&page=5

Edward Lear - View of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, Israel



Price Realized
£37,250

signed with monogram and dated '1885' (lower right) and inscribed and dated 'Jerusalem. 1858' (lower left)
pencil and watercolour heightened with white, on paper
6¾ x 14½ in. (17.2 x 36.8 cm.)

In 1858 Lear was commissioned to paint a view of Jerusalem at sunset by Lady Waldegrave for whom he also executed a large scale oil painting of Venice. In preparation for this painting Lear explored the surrounding landscape to find the most suitable location from which to base his viewpoint of the great city, climbing 'to the spot Christ must have been on when he "saw the city" - on coming from Bethany' (Letter to his sister Ann, 29 March 1858, in V. Noakes, Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer, London, 2004, p. 133) on the Mount of Olives from which could be seen 'the site of the temple & the 2 domes, - and it shews the ravine of the valley of Jehosaphat, over which the city looks...And besides this the sun, at sunset, catches the sides of the larger Eastern buildings, while all the upper part of the city is in shadow; - added to all which there is an unlimited foreground of figs, olives, & pomengranates, not to speak of goats, sheep, & huming beings [sic]' (Letter to Lady Waldegrave, 27.V.58, in V. Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, London, 1985, p. 149).
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/edward-lear-view-of-jerusalem-from-the/5396399/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=6&intObjectID=5396399&sid=e107da45-4c75-42f8-9c76-d62ad90fe2bd&page=5

James Jacques Joseph Tissot - Goodbye, on the Mersey




Price Realized
£58,850

signed and dated 'J.J. Tissot/1880' (lower right) and with inscription 'The Departure' (on the reverse)
pencil and watercolour with gum arabic heightened with touches of bodycolour, on paper
16¾ x 12 in. (42.5 x 30.5 cm.)

M. Wentworth, James Tissot, Oxford, 1984, p. 132 and pl. 147 for related oil painting.
K. Matyjaszkiewicz ed., James Tissot: 1836-1902, exh. cat., Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1984, under cat. no. 124, p. 218. N. R. Marshall and M. Warner, Victorian Life/Modern Love, 1999, p. 92 and colour plate p. 93 for related oil painting.

When exhibited in 1882, this watercolour (or one very similar) was described in the Birmingham Daily Post as 'the raised deck of a river steamboat, where a family group, consisting of a lady in a grey cloak, with her mother, child and husband, are waving their adieux to some friends on board a huge red-funnelled ocean monster, which is slowly steaming down the river on its outward voyage'. The river is the Mersey, the distant towers in the top left those of Liverpool, and the steamer one of the huge trans-Atlantic Cunard liners on its way to New York. Liverpool was the leading European port for travel to the United States, especially by emigrants from northern Europe, via Hull, and from Ireland. Nine million emigrants are estimated to have left Liverpool in the hundred years between 1830 and 1930. Visitors to America also sailed from there and a number of shipping lines competed for passengers.

Tissot, was born and grew up in the busy port city of Nantes, on the Atlantic coast of France. He came to love and know ships in a way unparalleled by other non-marine artists. A few of his early paintings include ships, but it was the fog and smoke-wreathed mesh of rigging, masts and funnels on the Thames estuary that inspired some of Tissot's finest paintings during the 1870s when he settled in London. The steamers that featured in several pictures sailed between London, Calcutta, New York and Liverpool, or London/Liverpool and Australia or New Zealand. They were captained by John Freebody, who appears in many of the paintings along with his wife, Margaret, and her brother, Lumley Kennedy. The bearded mariner wearing a cap, in the centre of this work, is based on Captain Freebody. It may have been through Freebody that Tissot visted Liverpool by steamer and saw the city from the Mersey estuary, as depicted in this watercolour. He would have been familiar with Liverpool from visits to some of the many exhibitions held there that included his work, and the dealers or collectors who were among his most enthusiastic patrons. He certainly visted the area in 1877, to work on a portrait of Mrs Catherine Smith Gill and her children (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), which was commissioned from Tissot by her husband, Chapple Gill, a Liverpool cotton broker.

Between 1880-82 Tissot was in regular contact with art connoisseurs in the United States and created an etching specifically for the American market, Les Deux Amis, which shows the parting of two friends before a transatlantic voyage. He was also aware of the heartbreak and difficulties of emigration from Captain Freebody, who was awarded a medal for his care of emigrants to New York. Goodbye, On the Mersey captures the mood of sadness, and fear of the dangerous sea crossing and uncertainties of life ahead, in its sombre grey-brown tones and portentous sky. The two standing young women are based on studies of Tissot's great love, Mrs Kathleen Newton. She travelled with Tissot to France and may have accompanied him on trips in England before her health deteriorated. The caped coat features in a number of travel or outdoor subjects, as does the black bonnet, seen here from side and rear on the two figures. Tissot was fond of such repetition, which adds the suggestion of movement, as do the waving arms and handkerchiefs, the young woman's edged in pinkish-red, perhaps to aid distinction from the many others on the boat.

The Birmingham Daily Post critic said of the watercolour exhibited in 1882; 'The grouping and attitudes are spirited and life-like, the colouring is sober and harmonious, and the lighting vivid and forcible'. Tissot made both oil and watercolour replicas of the oil painting, Goodbye, On the Mersey, that was included in the 1881 Royal Academy summer exhibition. This was probably in response to the many requests from provincial galleries to show work that had been seen at the Royal Academy in their own annual exhibitions. The Academy picture was shown that year at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (priced £350), while replicas were shown in Manchester and Glasgow in 1881 and Birmingham in 1882. Oil paintings could be reworked and detailed but Tissot's watercolour versions are characterised by a light, deft touch and assured line, as seen in the swift strokes of rigging and distant figures on the liner. Watercolours were a more affordable alternative to oils and many collectors prefered them. Tissot continued to make and show watercolours after he returned to Paris in 1882 and was an exhibiting member of the Société d'Aquarellistes Français.

We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.

John Wilson Carmichael - A proposed scheme for a new street, Newcastle



Price Realized
£25,000

signed and dated 'J. W. Carmichael/1831' (lower right)
oil on canvas
24 x 40¾ in. (60.9 x 103.5 cm.)

The present picture seems to show a proposed scheme for a new street by the celebrated Newcastle architect Richard Grainger. It has a general similarity in layout, style, and materials to Grey Street as it was built in 1835, although many details, as minutely described in Carmichael's picture, were not executed.

The scheme was recorded in a published isometric drawing by Thomas Sopwith in 1834 (Laing Art Gallery) and shows key features also seen in Carmichael's painting, such as a Gothic structure with a tall steeple facing down the street. The domed and pedimented structures seen in the painting correspond with the locations of a theatre and hotel in another drawing showing Grainger's original proposal (Newcastle City Library)

Another painting by Carmichael shows part of Grey Street as built, (reproduced in Pevsner Guide to Newcastle and Gateshead, McCombie, Yale, 2009, fig.113). Unlike the present painting it does not show the south-east corner of the street as the land was not acquired until some time after the street was completed (Newcastle and Gateshead, p 164).

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/john-wilson-carmichael-a-proposed-scheme-for/5396395/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=4&intObjectID=5396395&sid=e107da45-4c75-42f8-9c76-d62ad90fe2bd&page=5

The Apprentice House

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRapprentice.htm

Frank William Brangwyn - The Cider Press




Price Realized
£79,250

signed 'F B' (lower right)
oil on canvas
77½ x 78 in. (196.8 x 198.1 cm.)

London, New Gallery, 1902.
Venice, Venice Biennale, 1903.
St. Louis, St. Louis International Exposition, 1904, no. 34., illustrated. Venice, Venice Biennale, 1914

A painting redolent of the Old Masters, autumnal in colour and spirit, with a wonderful sense of light flickering through the central window of sky. Unusually for Brangwyn he appears to indicate a romantic yearning for the glories of rural England. The work has been highly praised by critics, Rinder describing it as a 'robust idealisation of an incident charged with beauty and with significance' considering it a 'noteworthy attempt to express the half-triumphant, half-sad sentiment of October'. Marion Spielman described the painting as 'one of [Brangwyn's] most opulent designs, such as Titian might rejoice in could he come to life in the twentieth century' whilst the Studio critic noted that it was 'masterly in handing and sumptuous in colour'. Seeing the work gracing the walls of Horton House, Winterbottom's home, Furst recalled 'the beautiful early rich and mellow Cider Press which alone would secure to its author a place amongst the Great Masters'. The work appealed vastly to the Japanese earlier this year - becoming the signature painting for the exhibition.

According to Macer-Wright, East purchased the work for £300 to help the younger artist out of financial difficulties, but the claim cannot be substantiated. Brangwyn borrowed the work from East to lend to an exhibition in Munich, but apparently the packing case was destroyed when on the docks in Tilbury. East recovered the canvas, had it relined and restored and it subsequently sold for £1,400.

We are grateful to Libby Horner for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/sir-frank-brangwyn-ra-the-cider-press/5396393/lot/lot_details.aspx?pos=3&intObjectID=5396393&sid=&page=5

Minggu, 30 Oktober 2011

William Etty - Female nude, seen from behind, leaning on a rock




Price Realized
£15,000

oil on canvas
24 x 17¼ in. (61 x 43.8 cm.)

Herbert James Gunn - Nude study




Price Realized
£55,250

signed 'James Gunn' (centre right)
oil on canvas
50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm.)

An atypical work by the artist, albeit using models who appear in other examples. Probably dating from the 1930s, it is an interesting experiment in the artist's exploration of a new style and subject.

James Drummond - Portrait of the Baroness Burdett Coutts and her companion Mrs Brown, Edinburgh, 1874



Price Realized
£18,750

inscribed and numbered 'Baroness Burdett Coutts/(1087)' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
20½ x 29 in. (52.1 x 73.7 cm.)

James Drummond, R.S.A. (1816-1877)

This striking composition by Drummond, by then curator of Edinburgh's National Gallery, commemorates the granting of the Freedom of the City in 1874 to Angela Burdett Coutts, described by King Edward VII as 'after my mother, the most remarkable woman in the kingdom'. The youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Bt., and his wife Sophia Coutts, she inherited three million pounds from Harriot, Duchess of St. Albans, who had previously been married, when an aspiring actress, to her grandfather, the banker Thomas Coutts. Resolutely single, until she married a twenty eight year old at the age of sixty seven, Burdett Coutts spent her fortune on a variety of good causes both at home and abroad. Queen Victoria made her the first woman to be granted a peerage in her own right. She was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Her inseparable companion for fifty two years was her former governess, Mrs Brown, 'the sunshine of my life'. Edna Healey in her acclaimed biography delicately suggests that there was 'an element in the close attachment ... that a post Freudian observer would see as sexual' but the couple would have been 'happily unaware' of such a notion. Their likenesses are preserved in stone in statues flanking the gateway to Holly Village, a model development they built in Highgate to act as an eye-catcher from their house, Holly Lodge. On Mrs Brown's death in 1878 the Baroness received letters of condolence from Queen Victoria, Empress Eugenie, and the King of the Belgians. Few Victorian governesses were so fêted or mourned.

It is remarkable how their relationship was so widely accepted in Victorian society, in contrast to the opprobrium that greeted the Baroness's later marriage.

Noel Paton - Christian at the foot of the cross - Pilgrim's Progress



Price Realized
£7,500

signed with monogram (lower right) and signed and inscribed 'The
copyright of this Picture is Reserved by/Noel Paton' (on the
stretcher)
oil on canvas, with an arched top 15¾ x 10½ in. (40 x 26.5 cm.)

oseph Noel Paton drew many subjects from John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress from his return to Edinburgh in 1857 well into the 1870's. The present picture is most probably a preliminary sketch for the work recorded in his studio in 1873 and now in Aberdeen Art Gallery.
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/sir-joseph-noel-paton-rsa-christian-at/5396369/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=10&intObjectID=5396369&sid=e107da45-4c75-42f8-9c76-d62ad90fe2bd&page=3

'Why must I suffer like this? It's tearing the flesh from my bones':

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2054613/Magnificent-Obsession-Victoria-Albert-And-The-Death-That-Changed-The-Monarchy.html

Jamaica Street, Glasgow (1901)

Sabtu, 29 Oktober 2011

William Bradford - An Arctic Scene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bradford_(painter)

William Dyce - Omnia Vanitas

William Powell Frith - Juliet O That I Were A Glove Upon That Hand

William Powell Frith - Henry VIII And Anne Boleyn Deer Shooting

Harry Spence - View of the Glasgow International Exhibition 1901

George Thorne, Designer of the Oakhampton Railway Bridge and a native of Barnstaple, North Devon. May 1864

Most unusual to find the original frame

An early itinerant photographers studio on wheels

Jumat, 28 Oktober 2011

William Powell Frith - At My Window Boulogne

William Shayer Snr., - Harvesters Resting

William Shayer Snr., - The Road Side Inn Somerset

William Stephen Coleman - Love Birds

Richard Jack - The apple



signed and dated 'R JACK 1901'
oil on canvas
79 x 62.5cm (31 1/8 x 24 5/8in).

Sarah McGregor - Combing Teddy




Sarah McGregor (British fl. 1869-1885)
Combing Teddy
signed and dated 'S.McGregor 1918' (lower right)
oil on canvas
76 x 63.5cm (29 15/16 x 25in).


Sold for £9,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

William Henry Knight - Rivals to Blondin




signed and dated 'W. H. Knight/1862.' (lower left), inscribed 'No. 2 Subject "Rivals to Blondin" W. H. Knight No 1. Claude Villas Love Walk Grove Lane Camberwell' (on the reverse)
oil on panel
46.5 x 61cm (18 5/16 x 24in).


Sold for £15,840 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Matthias Robinson - Charge of the Light Brigade




(British, active 1856-1884)
Charge of the Light Brigade
signed with monogram and dated '1864' (lower right)
oil on canvas
47.5 x 73.5cm (18 11/16 x 28 15/16in).


Sold for £6,240 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Helen Allingham - Buckinghamshire house at Penstreet



signed 'H.Allingham' (lower right)
watercolour
36 x 50.5cm (14 3/16 x 19 7/8in).


Sold for £16,800 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Footnote:
PROVENANCE:
with M. Newman Ltd, 1967
Sir Owen Aisher
The Marley Collection of Helen Allingham watercolours, Christie's London, September 19, 1991, lot 40
Sale, Bonhams London, 9th March 2004 lot 87

LITERATURE:
Annabel Watts, Helen Allingham's Cottage Homes Revisited, Craddocks Printing Works Ltd., Surrey 2002, p.18
Andrew Clayton-Payne, Victorian Cottages, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1993 p 123

For many years, part of this building was occupied by George and Catherine Randall and their daughter Annie. George was a blacksmith and it was there he had his forge. In the early years of the 20th century the house caught fire causing considerable damage, but it was rebuilt and still stands today.

This watercolour was one of 55, by Helen Allingham RWS, acquired by Sir Owen Aisher from 1947 until 1970. Each painting in the collection featured a cottage or a farmhouse as Sir Owen, Chairman of Marley Ltd, was particularly interested in the building materials so faithfully reproduced by the artist.

Allingham completed no more than half a dozen Buckinghamshire subjects and they date from circa 1900.

We are grateful to Annabel Watts for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Myles Birket Foster




The Swing
signed with monogram (lower right)
watercolour heightened with bodycolour
27.5 x 41.5cm (10 13/16 x 16 5/16in).




Ring a Ring a Roses
signed with monogram (lower left)
watercolour heightened with bodycolour
20.5 x 27cm (8 1/16 x 10 5/8in).


Sold for £18,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium




The shepherdess
signed with monogram (lower right)
watercolour heightened with bodycolour
15 x 22.5cm (5 7/8 x 8 7/8in).

Louise J. Rayner




Broad Street, Bristol
signed 'Louise Rayner' (lower right)
watercolour and bodycolour
49.5 x 33cm (19 1/2 x 13in).


Sold for £7,200 inclusive of Buyer's Premium



John Knox's House, Edinburgh
signed 'Louise Rayner' (lower left)
watercolour and bodycolour
32 x 46.5cm (12 5/8 x 18 5/16in).


Sold for £26,400 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Mary L. Gow




[Sisters; Playing with her Dolls]

one signed and dated l.l.: M. L. GOW. 97.; the other signed and dated l.l: M.L. Gow/ 1905 both watercolour and bodycolourone 51 by 40cm., 20 by 15¾in.; the other 38 by 20cm., 15 by 8in.

ESTIMATE 4,000-6,000 GBP

Sotheby's in London announces sale of Victorian & Edwardian art in November

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=51383

Kamis, 27 Oktober 2011

Minggu, 23 Oktober 2011

Internet down



Its been one thing then another. I was re-cabling my router, after moving my computer, and something broke and my local town didn't have the correct cable. All ordered but be back properly later this week.