Sunday, September 12, 2010

John MacWhirter - Silver Birches



1839-1911.

Price Realized £5,378

signed 'MacW' (lower right)
oil on canvas, laid down on panel
31 7/8 x 6¾ in. (80.6 x 171.cm.)

Painted for Alma-Tadema's house, 17 Grove End Road, St John's Wood; sold Hampton & Sons, London, 11 June 1913, lot 583

'Mr MacWhirter's admirers,' wroter de Cordova, 'will delight in one of the silver birches of which - even before the year London went wild over his famous "Three Graces" - he had made so great a study.' The reference is to a picture that the artist had exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, and which had been largely responsible for securing his election as ARA that year.

In Alma-Tadema's hall, the panel was placed to the left of James Archer's Centaurs, which was flanked by Colin Hunter's Seascape on the other side.

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