Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Opium Den - Edwin Drood (Dickens) - Gustave Dore 1872


William Thomas Stead in prison uniform


Musical Evening 1889


John William Godward - A Cool Retreat

James Macbeth - A Quiet Moment



Signed on the reverse
oil on panel
9⅞ × 6¾ ins

1847–1891
James Macbeth was a Glasgow painter who is best known as a portraitist working
from 1872. Although he lived in Scotland he exhibited most of his work in London
including some genre and landscape subjects. He exhibited at the Royal Academy
between 1872–1884.

John William Godward - Flabellifera




1905
Oil on canvas
27 7/8 × 24 inches

John Byam Liston Shaw - God is in Heaven ...



[God is in Heaven and Thou upon Earth: Therefore let thy words
be few’ Ecclesiastes Ch. V.V.ii]
Signed and titled on a label attached to the reverse
oil on panel
16 × 12 ins

Literature: Rex Vicat Cole The Art and Life of Byam Shaw (London 1932)

Byam Shaw painted this picture as part of a commission for the dealers Dowdeswell who
bought and published Love the Conqueror in 1899. The exhibition ‘Sermon’s in Stones and Good in Everything’ suggested by the Book of Ecclesiastes took place in 1902. He also worked on several other Dowdeswell commissions.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Gustave Dore




[Over London by Rail]
1872
[Dudley St., Seven Dials]
1872

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dials

George Owen Wynne Apperley - self portrait



Signed and inscribed ‘Painted by himself at Bushey in the year AD 1915. His age 31’;
watercolour and bodycolour; 20 × 16 ins
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1916, no. 1000.

George Owen Wynne Apperley is a forgotten English watercolourist of some
considerable talent, as shown here in this extraordinary self-portrait painted in 1915.

Apperley was a descendant of ‘Nimrod’, the sporting journalist. He attended Hubert
von Herkomer’s art school in Bushey, Hertforshire. Indeed it was at Bushey where
Apperley painted this self-portrait at the age of 31, when he returned to live there in 1913, following the death of a daughter, the illness of a son and his own poor
health. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1905, and his first one-man show
was in the following year. In 1907 he married and lived in Hampstead, travelling
twice yearly to paint on the Continent.

In addition to painting, Apperley also composed a musical, The Flying Man, based on
the exploits of Blériot, and he appeared on the music hall stage.

In 1916, the year after he painted this extraordinary self-portrait, he was advised to go to Spain for his health – and he never returned. He first lived in Granada, and
then at the Villa Apperley, Tangier, with a Spanish gypsy. He had numerous
exhibitions in Spain and was awarded the order of Alfonso X el Sabio in 1945. He
painted figures, mythological subjects, landscapes and town views. He was a fine
draughtsman, as shown here in this watercolour with its highly detailed interior.

Alfred Augustus Glendening - Strayed



monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
20.5 x 29.5"

Arthur Claude Strachan - Evening Glow, Welford on Avon



signed
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic
20.5 x 30 1/4"

Myles Birket Foster - two paintings






[At the Spring]
monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
5.5 x 4"
[Feeding a Calf]
monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
5 x 7"

Monday, June 28, 2010

London early photographs






[Fore Street, Lambeth]
V&A
[Bristle Pickers, working at home]
c. 1880
Museum of London

Frederick Barnard 'The Guards Band in the Park'


Illustrated London News
11 June 1870

John William Godward - Phyrrha after her bath



signed with monogram and dated 1903 l.l.
oil on panel
29 by 14cm., 11½ by 5½in.

ESTIMATE 20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 44,450 GBP

The stencil-mark on the reverse of this panel identifies the picture as a version of a painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1903. The title is taken from Horace's poem Carmen, in which the name Phyrrha (or Pyrrha) can be interpreted as meaning 'fiery-red'. The name is also mentioned by Ovid in Metamorphoses. She was the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora and wife of Deucalion. When Zeus sought to destroy humanity by sending a terrible flood, she was the only mortal woman to be spared. Godward playfully depicted her dressing after bathing in a thermae.

Godward painted relatively few nudes, a notable example being Campaspe (sold in these rooms for an auction record price, 14 December 2006, lot 127) painted in 1896. It was Godward's habit to make smaller versions of his more ambitious pictures and a similar panel made in preparation for Venus at the Bath Godward's Royal Academy
exhibit of 1901, is known.

Phyrrah's pose echoes that of the classical statue known as the Venus of Arles, a bronze copy of which is placed in a niche in the background.

Sothebys

Arthur Joseph Gaskin - Portrait of Joscelyne Verney Gaskin, aged 12 yrs, the Artist’s Daughter




Inscribed and signed on the reverse; oil on canvas, 14 × 11 ins
Provenance: Joscelyne Turner, nĂ©e Gaskin, the artist’s daughter and thence by direct descent to present.

A drawing for this painting is illustrated in The Studio no. 64, 1915 p. 26.
Gaskin was a leading member of the Birmingham Group of Artists that included
Joseph Southall, Henry Payne and Sidney Meteyard. Both he and his wife were
designers of jewellery, enamel and metalwork. Much influenced by Burne-Jones and
William Morris he is closely associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Reginald Barber - Portrait of a Boy



signed with initials l.r.: . RB.
watercolour, oval
53 by 46cm., 21 by 18in.

Myles Birket Foster - three paintings




[A Donkey Ride]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
7 x 10"
[Venice]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
4.5 x 6"
[Bolton Abbey]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with white
9 x 12"

George Elgar Hicks - The Sinews of Old England




1857
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic

Erskine Nicol - An Irish Immigrant landing at Liverpool


1871
National Gallery of Scotland

Frederick Walker - The Vagrants


1868
Tate Gallery

George Heming Mason - Harvest Moon


1872
Tate Gallery


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hemming_Mason

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley/collections/entrancehall/ploughing_campagna_mason.aspx

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Railway Classes




Arthur Hacker - The Sea Maiden



signed and dated l.l.: Arthur Hacker./ 97.
oil on canvas
128.5 by 131cm., 50½ by 51½in.

Royal Academy, 1897

Arthur Hacker - A Nude Bacchante with a Faun




oil on canvas
129.5 by 94cm., 51 by 37in.

By descent through the family of the artist

John Atkinson Grimshaw - Still Life ...



Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 16,600 GBP
signed and dated l.r.: J A Grimshaw/ 1869
oil on board
51 by 35.5 cm., 20 by 14 in.

Grimshaw's earliest pictures were still lifes and they showed a love of nature suffused with a strong attention to detail. In his formative years he was influenced by John William Inchbold, a Leeds born artist, who painted in line with Pre-Raphaelite principles of exact rendering of nature. The present work shows a meticulous observation of nature with a bird's nest set around branches of primulas
and blossom. Grimshaw was to change his style in the 1870's moving away from the meticulous detail, high finish and bright colour and begin his moonlight compositions, which were to become synonymous with his name. However, his interest in nature was to remain and these early pictures are an important part of the artist's career.

English Romantic Art - 1850-1920




Herbert Gustave Schmalz (1856–1935)
A Fair Beauty
Signed and dated 1889; oil on canvas, 24 × 20 ins
Provenance: George Hughes, Newcastle; Mawson, Swan & Morgan, Newcastle; Private Collection.

‘Another Victorian worthy who enjoyed a great reputation in his day was Herbert
Schmalz. He painted subjects from classical and biblical history, only choosing
episodes which offered opportunities for elaborate and exotic architectural settings.’

(Christopher Wood, Olympian Dreamers p. 254.) In 1890 he visited Jerusalem and
the Holy Land to collect material for his biblical subjects, many of which were
turned into prints. He also painted portraits, and romantic figurative subjects. After the First World War, he changed his name to Carmichael.
cat

September 20th – October 22nd, 2005
Shepherd & Derom Galleries

in association with
Campbell Wilson
Christopher Wood

http://www.shepherdgallery.com/pdf/EngRomArt.pdf
nb. pdf format

Myles Birket Foster - two paintings




[A Highland Cottage]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with white
6 x 9"

[Cattle and a Milkmaid by a Rive]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with white
7 x 10"

Arthur Boyd Houghton - Holburn in 1861


John J. Lee - The Bookstall


1863

William Logsdail - The Bank and the Royal Exchange (detail)


1887

Friday, June 25, 2010

Studios with an artistic past



http://www.countrylife.co.uk/blogs/article/438556/Studios-with-an-artistic-past.html

George Cruikshank Snr - London 1851


(Sir) Frank Dicksee - Mrs Norman Holbrook




mrs norman holbrook
signed and dated l.l.: FRANK DICKSEE 1924; signed and inscribed with title and artist's address on a label attached to the stretcher
oil on canvas
148 by 100.5 cm., 58 1/4 by 39 1/2 in.

Viva, Mrs Norman Holbrook, was the daughter of Frederick Woodin and the widow of F.E. Dixon. In 1919 she married Commander Norman Holbrook, one of the six Holbrook brothers who were known during the First World War as 'The Fighting Holbrooks'. He was famous for his daring exploit in the Dardanelles when he took his submarine under five rows of mines in order to torpedo a Turkish battleship. Against the odds he returned safely and was awarded the first naval V.C. Viva Holbrook died in 1952.

Exhibited:
London, Royal Academy, 1924, no.203.

John Byam Shaw - The Lure




Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 17,750 GBP
signed l.r.: BYAM SHAW,
oil on panel
62 by 66 cm., 24 1/2 by 26 in.

Joseph Noel Paton - The Tempest



Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 2,640 GBP
six scenes from the tempest
six, two inscribed with title along the lower edge
3 pencil, 3 black pen & ink (6)
27 by 21.5 cm., 10 1/2 by 8 1/2 in.; 21.5 by 31.5 cm., 8 1/2 by 12 1/4 in.; 30 by 20 cm., 11 3/4 by 8 in.; 19.5 by 29.5.; 7 3/4 by 11 1/2 in.; 21 by 31 cm., 8 1/4 by 12 in.; 22 by 32 cm., 8 3/4 by 12 1/2 in.

John Collier - The Prodigal Daughter



1903

http://www.answers.com/topic/john-collier

Albert Chevallier Tayler - two pictures






[The Yellow Ribbon]
1889

[Sisters]
1905