Augustus Jules Bouvier - The Knight's Enchantment

Price Realized £5,975

oil on canvas, painted arch
22 x 26¼ in. (55.9 x 66.6 cm.)

Augustus Jules Bouvier was a London-based artist whose subjects included portraits, literary themes and genre. Evidently of French extraction, he was one of a family of artists who all exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution. Augustus himself showed at the BI from 1845 to 1859 and at the RA from 1852 to 1879.

A group of Bouvier's pen-and-ink drawings, rather in the style of 'Dickie' Doyle, was exhibited by Abbott & Holder a year or two ago. Examples were bought by the British Museum.

The subject of the present painting is reminiscent of that of Tannhäuser, although the central female figure, demurely playing with a lamb, hardly looks like the rapacious goddess of love. Spencer is perhaps a more likely literary source.