Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Albert Joseph Moore - The Companions
now in the Andrew Lloyd Webber collection
signed with anthemion and signed and inscribed 'Albert Moore Esq/ 1 Holland House' on an old label the reverse;
oil on canvas
17 x 9 1/4" (43 x 23.5cm.)
Photogravure published by Dowdeswelts, 1883
One of only three pictures exhibited by Moore in 1883 (when he showed nothing at the Academy or the Grosvenor) develops a composition that he had first adopted in Topaz, a picture exhibited at the Grosvenor in 1879. In turn at least two other works were based on Companions; a watercolour version of the same title but with a different colour scheme exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1885 and now possibly in the Fogg Art Museum a and Ivory Beads, a smaller oil of 1883 containing a single figure.
Moore derived most of his decorative devices from close observation of nature, and he claimed that the filigree patterns created by dark foliage seen against a pale sky gave him the idea of laying a tracery of white lace over dark drapery in Companions. The motif was repeated in several subsequent paintings of the late 1880s.
A.L. Baldry discussed the picture at some length in his biography of Moore (1894). 'This picture', he wrote, is particularly characteristic, one of the best of his smaller works, and a fascinating example of the manner in which he would detail without losing breath and simplicity (op.cit, p.54). The picture was also one of those singled out by the Art Journal in a review of the artist's memorial exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in 1894, as an example of 'his best work [which] was done during the decade that ended in 1888'.
Thanks to Robyn Asleson for her help in preparing this entry.
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Edwin Long - Study of the head of an Arab girl
Price Realized £10,755
signed with monogram (lower left)
oil on canvas, laid down on board, oval
14 x 12 in. (35.5 x 30.5 cm.)
In 1874 Long undertook an extensive trip to Egypt and Syria and this became his new subject area. His most important painting of the period was The Babylonian Marriage Market (1875) and he began to be considered more seriously by critics. The majority of the works from this period were produced at his new studio in St John's Wood at 19 Marlborough Road.
Frederick Goodall - The Palm Grove
Price Realized £47,800
signed with monogram and dated '1894' (lower left)
oil on canvas
72 1/8 x 44¾ in. (183.2 x 113.6 cm.)
London, Royal Academy, 1894, no. 172.
The son of an engraver Edward Goodall and brother of Edward Alfred Goodall, Goodall won a silver medal at the Society of Arts in 1837, at the age of 14. He toured Ireland in 1843 with F.W. Topham and his early works are mainly genre and peasant scenes in the Wilkie tradition. He travelled extensively as did his brother who accompanied the Schomburgh Guiana Boundary Expedition in 1841, visiting the Crimea in 1854 and Morocco, Spain, Portual and Italy. Two of his sons, Frederick Trevelyan and Herbert Goodall were also painters.
Goodall made two journeys to the East. Feeling restricted by the genre images which he was producing, he spent the winter of 1858-9 in Egypt. Much of the trip was spent in the company of the Bavarian born watercolourist Carl Haag. The account he gave of his visit leaves no doubt of the visual excitement he received from the scene in Cairo, and he was indefatigable in sketching. Impressed by the gracefulness of the Egyptians and the grandeur of the landscape, Goodall made them the central focus of his art and exhibited the first of his many Orientalist scenes, Early morning in the Wilderness of Shur, at the Royal Academy in 1860. The work was praised by critics and artists, including Sir Edwin Landseer and David Roberts, and established Goodall's reputation. The sale of all of his oil sketches from this tour to the dealer Ernest Gambart for six thousand guineas financed his second visit in 1870-1. On this trip he and a dragoman on donkeys (carrying a sketching box designed and given to Goodall by the French animal painter, Rosa Bonheur) joined the nomadic bedouin near Saqqara. The present work was probably inspired by this trip and shows two fellahin driving sheep through a palm grove.
Goodall took part in the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 and continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1902. At the height of his career he was earning over £10,000 a year and he commissioned Norman Shaw to design his house, along with fellow artists Kate Greenaway, Frank Holl, Edwin Long, Marcus Stone and Luke Fildes. Unfortunately a large number of his Egyptian pictures were destroyed during the Second World War.
Edwin Long - The Easter Vigil
Price Realized £41,825
signed 'EDWIN LONG' (lower right) and signed and inscribed 'The Easter Vigil/Painted by Edwin Long/33 Ovington Square' (on an old label on the reverse)
oil on canvas
51¾ x 81 in. (131.4 x 205.7 cm.)
London, Royal Academy, 1871, no. 486.
A woman whispers her confession to a priest who listens with wrinkled brow and a wry expression whilst another girl kisses the feet of a statue of Jesus and a group of women await their turn, praying and clutching their rosary beads. This is a superb example of Long's work from his Spanish period and bears many similarities to The Catechism (1867). However, it is closest in theme and composition to Good Advice (1871) in which Long portrays the same central characters in a similarly religious genre scene. The young girl, her anxious mother urging her on, presents a letter to the priest and listens to his advice, coyly turning her head away. Mark Bills has suggested that Good Advice, although smaller (38 x 51¾ in.) forms the second part of the narrative begun in our work. A study exists painted the same year that does not show the confession box and the clergyman to the left of the picture and which were conceived of later for the main work. (Madame Tussauds; by descent to Mr Clive Blount).
Long's Spanish interest stems back to 1857 when he attended classes given by John Phillip in his studio at 39 Gloucester Road. Phillip introduced Long to the Spanish painters that had influenced him and they travelled extensively throughout Spain together. This period from 1857 until 1874 when he went to Egypt was Long's most prolific period during which the influence of Phillip and Murillo are present throughout his work. The individual character of Long's work began to form and can be seen most obviously in his works on a larger scale. Although his grander history subjects were clearly influenced by Phillip, it was his fascination with religious ritual and devotion which distinguished Long from his mentor. The characteristic elements of his genre pieces from his Spanish period include priests, lovers, fruit-sellers - all revealing a diversity of colourful Spanish costume. Religious devotion of young women was a frequent subject in his work in such paintings as At Mass (c. 1860) and A Young Peasant at her Devotions (1870). Perhaps his first wholly successful painting on an ambitious scale is A Question of Propriety was exhibited in 1870 the year before our work and received favourable reviews in the journals. In 1871 Long visited Spain and whilst painting An Easter Vigil, he also undertook The Supplicants: Expulsion of the Gypsies from Spain which achieved critical acclaim the following year at the Royal Academy and effectively severed his stylistic ties with Phillip.
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