Myles Birket Foster

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

I first posted these pictures from the Sotherby's 11 Mar 1998 sale back in 2008, but though I can't find the sale results, I have done a lot more research on the individual pictures which seems worth posting.

[A Lift to School]
signed l.l. with his monogram BF
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
11 1/4 x 15 3/4"
estimate : £15-20,000

1825 – 1899.

Cundall, H.M. Birket Foster RWS. London: A. & C. Black Ltd., 1906.

Lewis, Frank. Birket Foster. Leigh on Sea: Lewis, 1973.

Reynolds, Jan. Myles Birket Foster. London: Batsford, 1984.

Birket Foster began to draw from the age of 5 at his home in North Shields (near Newcastle upon Tyne). His family moved south to London in 1830, where his father (a Quaker) founded M. B. Foster & sons (a beer-bottling company). He was schooled at Hitchin, Hertfordshire and on leaving initially went into his father's business. However, noticing his talent for art, his father secured an apprenticeship with the notable wood engraver, Ebenezer Landells, where he worked on illustrations for Punch magazine and the Illustrated London News.

In 1846 he began work for himself and collaborated with John Gilbert and Jane Benham on a very successful edition of Longfellow's Evangeline (published in 1850).



http://www.hwlongfellow.org/works_evangeline.shtml

For ten years he worked as a successful illustrator,then in 1859 embarked on a career of painting rural subjects in watercolour (occasionally in oil). That year he exhibited A Farm - Arundel Park in the Distance at the RA and the folowing year was elected as asspciate member of the Old Watercolour Society, becoming a full member in 1861.

[Summer Landscape] 1860
signed with monogram 'BF 1860'
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
11 1/4 x 24.5"



[Springtime (The Cowslip Gatherers)]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
8.5 x 13 3/4"



[Skipping in the Road]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
11 x 15 3/4"



[Shelling Peas]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
8 x 10 3/4"



[The Organ Grinder - A Surrey Cottage]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour and scratching out
9 3/4 x 13.5"
(this cottage also appears in A Surrey Cottage)



[Cottage at Amersham]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
7 3/4 x 10 3/4"



[The Young Gardeners]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
8 x 10.5"



[Sheep by a Stile]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
8 x 10 1/4"



[Old Mill, Braemer]
signed with monogram
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
8 x 10 3/4"
cf.
http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/foster/drawings/1.html

For further watercolour (reproductions):

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Myles-Birket-Foster/Myles-Birket-Foster-oil-paintings.html

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=192&page=1

http://www.chrisbeetles.com/gallery/artist.php?art=1729

and for his connection with Surrey:

http://exploringsurreyspast.org/themes/people/artists/myles_birket_foster

interesting to note "In Witley, Birket Foster was at the centre of a thriving artistic colony which included George Eliot, Kate Greenaway and Helen Allingham. "

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Myles_Birket_Foster











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