Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Louis Haghe - The Refreshment Area at the Great Exhibition of 1851
[The Refreshment Area at the Great Exhibition of 1851]
signed L. Haghe 1851 l.l.
pen and black and brown ink, watercolour and bodycolour
34.5 x 26.5"
.
1806 - 1885.
Haghe was one of the artists commissioned by Prince Albert to produce watercolours of the Great Exhibition. These were then reproduced as chromo-lithographs. Haghe was previously famous for his Sketches in the Holy Land produced with David Roberts in 1842-9.
Price Realized £8,750 (2009)
Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, set up a committee to organise exhibitions with the aim of improving British industrial design. This led to the first truly international exhibition 'The Great Exhibition', which was held in Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace at Hyde Park, in the Summer of 1851. Opened by the Queen on 1st May, six million people flocked to see over 100,000 exhibits from around the world.
Upon entering visitors would have been struck by the size and structural perfection of the building that met their eyes. As they went through the doors they would have been overwhelmed by the height of the iron and glass transept which rose 108ft (33m) above their heads, encasing fully grown Elm trees, adding to the impression that they were in a vast green house.
This particular watercolour, by Louis Haghe, shows the central refreshment area, with the hustle and bustle of people gathered around. In it can be seen two of the Elms - originally to be cut down in initial designs for the Crystal Palace, but then included after an outcry from the British public. It gives an idea to the viewer of the pure grandness and spectacle of the exhibition, and the sense of social occasion that must have been felt by all visitors.
Haghe, amongst other artists, was commissioned by Prince Albert to produce watercolours of the Great Exhibition. These were then to be reproduced into chromo-lithographs, which was the new mechanical colour-printing process in keeping with the aims of the exhibition. Haghe was one of the pioneering artists of this process, and had previously worked with David Roberts (1796-1864) on his 'Sketches in the Holy Land', published from 1842-49. The watercolour in this lot, of the refreshment area (or 'food court' as we would term it today), was almost certainly a pre-design for his much smaller work of the same subject, currently in the Victoria and Albert Museum (CT28003).
Edward Robert Smythe - Yarmouth Jetty
[The Yarmouth Jetty, with promenaders, fishermen and travellers with their horses]
signed E R Smythe l.r.
oil on canvas
24 x 36"
.
John O'Connor - The shipbuilder's cart
signed J. O'Connor l.l.
oil on canvas
22 x 26"
.
Born in Co. Derry he began work as an assistant scene-painter at the Belfast Th. and then later the Dublin Th. In 1848 he moved to London where he worked as a scene painter at Drury Lane and later at the Haymarket where he became principal scene-painter. He took up landscape painting and travelled widely on the continent and exhibited at the RA from 1857 - 1888.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Marie Elizabeth Seymour Lucas - Small and of no reputation
oil on canvas
16.1 x 11.8 "
signed 'Marie Seymore Lucas' (ll)
David Woodlock - An old cottage near Church Stretton, Shropshire
signed 'old cottage/ near Church Stretton/Shropshire/D. Woodlock.19.' l.l.
pencil and watercolour, heightened with white
15 1/5 x 10 1/5"
William Collins - Children on a mountain top
signed W Collins / 1846 l.r.
oil on canvas
17.5 x 24 1/4"
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the Italian Renaissance
Out of my period I know, but since it happens to feature my favourite painting
Lady with Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci created around 1490
Ernest Walbourn - pair
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[Flower Pickers]
[The Young Fisherman]
each signed Ernest Walbourn l.r.
oil on canvas
24 x 16"
John Strickland Goodall - The Happy Family
Pencil and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour
7 1/4 x 10 1/4"
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
John Strickland Goodall
[Tennis]
signed John S. Goodall l.r.
Pencil and Watercolour, heightened with bodycolour
7 1/4 x 10 1/4"
.
1908 - 1996.
William Stephen Coleman - Children resting
[Children resting on the steps of a seaside cottage]
signed W S Coleman l.l.
Watercolour and bodycolour
6 1/4 x 9 1/4"
Worked in a style rather similar to Myles Birket Foster. He was a surgeon before becoming an artist.
Monday, October 26, 2009
William McTaggert
[Children Shrimping]
signed W McTaggert 1893 l.r.
oil on canvas
14 x 19 3/4"
.
1835 - 1910.
Edward Seago - Calm Evening on the Waveney
signed Edward Seago l.l.
oil on board
16 x 24"
.
Seago was born and lived in Norfolk most of his life.
including works currently for sale
Samuel John Lamorna Birch - On the road to Land's End
signed S.J. Lamorna Birch l.l.
oil on canvas
20 x 30"
.
including works currently for sale
(Sir) Alfred East - Twilight in Windsor Forest
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1912
oil on canvas
42 x 50"
.
including works currently for sale
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Harold Speed
[Garden Pond with fountain at dusk]
oil on canvas
30 x 25"
[Awakening Spring]
oil on canvas
30 x 25"
[A rocky pool with waterfall]
oil on canvas
20 x 23"
.
1872 - 1957.
Albert Goodwin - Youth is Full of Sport ...
.jpg)
"Youth is full of sport
Age's breath is short"
signed Albert Goodwin/77 l.l.
oil on canvas
36 x 55 3/4"
exhibited RA 1877
A much acclaimed work at the time.
(notice the slightly different title)
Albert Goodwin - Warden's Garden of Winchester College
[with the Chapel beyond]
signed Albert Goodwin l.r.
oil on board
14 3/4 x 21"
exhibited RA 1920
.
John MacVicar Anderson
[Canterbury Cathredral by Moonlight]
signed JOHN ANDERSON l.r.
oil on canvas
21 3/4 x 36"
.
1835 - 1915.
http://www.artnet.com/artist/700258/john-macvicar-anderson.html
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Philip John Thornhill - Golden Threads
[Golden Threads]
oil on canvas
50 x 72"
exhibited RA 1904
.
1875 - 1903.
Price Realized £12,250 (2009)
Archibald Wakley - A Royal Princess
[A Royal Princess]
signed ARCHIBALD/WAKLEY/1903 l.r.
inscribed 'A Royal Princess/"But a vain shadow.If one considereth/Vanity of Vanities/As the Preacher saith"/C. Rossetti/Archibald Wakley/76A Monmouth Road/Bayswater/W.'
Watercolour and bodycolour heightened with white and gold
21.5 x 26 1/4"
.
1873 - 1906.
.
Price Realized £3000 (2009)
The inscription on the label to the reverse comes from Christina Rossetti's poem Mother Country, composed on the 7 February 1866. Archibald Wakley was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and worked in both oils and watercolour. The present lot exhibits his allegiance to a Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic akin to Burne-Jones and De Morgan. Considered a prodigious talent, his promising career was cut short when he was brutally murdered in his Bayswater home in 1906.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Carlton Alfred Smith - A favourite sketch
signed Carlton A. Smith, 1910 l.l.
oil on panel
13 x 9"
exhibited The Society of Oil Painters, London
.
Price Realized £2,000 (2009)
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?pos=6&intObjectID=5177796&sid=
(Sir) Joseph Noel Paton - The Indian's boy's mother (study)
oil on canvas
13 x 11 1/8"
Price Realized £8,750 (2009)
This is an accurate study for two figures at the lower centre of a composition by Paton, illustrating a scene from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The finished painting represents one of a pair including The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania 1849, also The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania 1847. The figures in this study are shown in both paintings, currently with the National Gallery of Scotland.
Paton was a highly successful artist who specialised in painting detailed compositions illustrating biblical episodes and imaginative stories based on romantic myths and legends. His interest in achieving convincing naturalistic detail was inspired by his friend John Everett Millais, with whom he studied at the Royal Academy. Paton, born in Dunfermline, returned to Scotland and was appointed 'the Queen's Limner in Scotland' in 1866. His most famous paintings are of fairy subjects which enjoyed great popularity during Victoria's reign.
Paton's painting is an imaginative interpretation of an incident in Shakespeare's play. Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, quarrel over the possession of a changeling (a human child, carried off to the fairy realm and replaced by a fairy child). The main figures are surrounded by a host of smaller fairy creatures, some grotesque, others beautiful, whose supernatural character excused their sensual appearance and behaviour. The painting was judged to be 'picture of the season' when exhibited in Edinburgh in 1850. Later it captivated Lewis Carroll (the author of Alice in Wonderland) who counted 165 fairies.
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?pos=4&intObjectID=5177794&sid=