Marcus Stone - The End of the Story

signed and dated l.l.: MARCUS STONE/ 1900. ; inscribed on a label pasted to the reverse


oil on canvas


Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 43,200 GBP

The End of the Story was one of thirty-nine pictures by living artists commissioned by Agnews and exhibited in November and December 1900. It has all the hallmarks of the very best of Stone's romantic images of idealised womanhood and idyllic notions of history, beautifully conceived in the suave style which made him so popular as an artist and encouraged the sale of many thousands of prints of his work. The pose of the figure appears to have been based on a painting made popular by the sale of a photogravure printed by Frost and Reed entitled Love at First Sight, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1891.

The pleasant and successful combination of an attractive young lady in eighteenth century costume, a glorious English garden and a benevolent pet cat, became Marcus Stone's most recognisable image in the 1890s. Stone adored the feline companions who shared his home in Kensington and prowled the garden which backed on to that of Frederic Leighton. Stone made many sketches of his favourite pets stretched out on the lawns or curled in front of the stove in the studio. Two sketches of a tabby cat, probably the same one which appears in The End of the Story, are reproduced in the Art Annual's appreciation of Stone's work published in 1896. The paintings in which cats appear so frequently almost without exception depict women in idle reverie, awaiting lovers or reading amorous correspondence as in The First Love Letter of 1889. The End of the Story depicts a fashionable young lady of the Regency period, absorbed in the conclusion of a tale read whilst seated in a shaded corner of a summer garden. The terrace with classical urns had been painted in several other works by Stone, including The First Love Letter and is the subject of a watercolour sketch reproduced in the Art Annual. This watercolour appears to have been used to paint the background of The End of The Story, although the wall and urns are seen from a more perpendicular angle. As the Art Annual noted so succinctly; 'Perhaps the best way of describing the character of his pictures would be to say that they reflect the spirit of nature rather than her exact aspect. All her ways and customs have been by him examined with extreme care, and copious notes have been during many years taken of her phasese. Meanwhile, he has on the knowledge acquired in this way, built up a conviction of his own about the way in which she should be represented. It may be termed a convention, but at all events it is one that gives him the opportunities which he desires most, and it enables him to make sure of getting that particular decorative atmosphere in which he prefers to invest his favourite subjects.' (Marcus Stone, Art Annual, 1896, pg. 29)




PROVENANCE

Sotheby's, 9 April 1980, lot 44


EXHIBITED


Agnew's, English Art in 1900, November - December 1900



CATALOGUE NOTE


The End of the Story was one of thirty-nine pictures by living artists commissioned by Agnews and exhibited in November and December 1900. It has all the hallmarks of the very best of Stone's romantic images of idealised womanhood and idyllic notions of history, beautifully conceived in the suave style which made him so popular as an artist and encouraged the sale of many thousands of prints of his work. The pose of the figure appears to have been based on a painting made popular by the sale of a photogravure printed by Frost and Reed entitled Love at First Sight, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1891.

The pleasant and successful combination of an attractive young lady in eighteenth century costume, a glorious English garden and a benevolent pet cat, became Marcus Stone's most recognisable image in the 1890s. Stone adored the feline companions who shared his home in Kensington and prowled the garden which backed on to that of Frederic Leighton. Stone made many sketches of his favourite pets stretched out on the lawns or curled in front of the stove in the studio. Two sketches of a tabby cat, probably the same one which appears in The End of the Story, are reproduced in the Art Annual's appreciation of Stone's work published in 1896. The paintings in which cats appear so frequently almost without exception depict women in idle reverie, awaiting lovers or reading amorous correspondence as in The First Love Letter of 1889. The End of the Story depicts a fashionable young lady of the Regency period, absorbed in the conclusion of a tale read whilst seated in a shaded corner of a summer garden. The terrace with classical urns had been painted in several other works by Stone, including The First Love Letter and is the subject of a watercolour sketch reproduced in the Art Annual. This watercolour appears to have been used to paint the background of The End of The Story, although the wall and urns are seen from a more perpendicular angle. As the Art Annual noted so succinctly; 'Perhaps the best way of describing the character of his pictures would be to say that they reflect the spirit of nature rather than her exact aspect. All her ways and customs have been by him examined with extreme care, and copious notes have been during many years taken of her phasese. Meanwhile, he has on the knowledge acquired in this way, built up a conviction of his own about the way in which she should be represented. It may be termed a convention, but at all events it is one that gives him the opportunities which he desires most, and it enables him to make sure of getting that particular decorative atmosphere in which he prefers to invest his favourite subjects.' (Marcus Stone, Art Annual, 1896, pg. 29)