MacConnal Mason

MACCONNAL-MASON

ESTABLISHED 1893

MACCONNAL-MASON 14 & 17 Duke Street St James’s, London, SW1Y 6DB

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7839 7693 Fax: +44 (0)20 7839 6797 fineart@macconnal-mason.com www.macconnal-mason.com

Chairman: David L. Mason O.B.E. Managing Director: David M. Mason Director: Marcus Halliwell Associate Director: Sue Palmer Gallery Manager: Richard Pikesley

SIXTY SELECTED WORKS

The last two years have been extremely and uniquely challenging - the world continues to experience a degree of turmoil, which we all hope will soon be resolved.

After two tumultuous years, with fairs and exhibitions cancelled, also the necessary closure of our galleries for periods, this catalogue in some ways represents a relaunch of our company.

This catalogue is, I believe, one of the finest, most comprehensive, and eclectic, collections of paintings that we have acquired from all corners of the globe. It illustrates the wide spectrum of paintings in which we deal, from the exceptional paintings by Sir Alfred Munnings, superb examples by Eugene de Blaas, the social realism of Georg Pauli’s masterpiece “Calvados”, recently rediscovered, to the gritty observations of L.S. Lowry. It is a collection of which I am immensely proud, and it offers a unique opportunity to art collectors to acquire a group of exceptional and important works of art.

In inflationary times the art market has historically been seen as a refuge and we have certainly seen a marked and significant increase over the past months, as confirmed by some extraordinary saleroom results.

We will once again be exhibiting at the most important International Art Fairs, the first of which will be Masterpiece in June. (In order to help reduce our carbon footprint) Invitations for all these Fairs will in future be sent by email, if you would like to receive these invitations, please do provide us with your email address, contact Zcoomber@macconnal-mason.com.

We look forward to seeing you here at our two galleries in the heart of St James’s, or at the International Art Fairs, which are listed at the rear of this catalogue.

David L. Mason, O.B.E. Chairman

For the convenience of our clients, biographical details of the artists are listed at the back of the catalogue.

No. 1

PIERRE-EUGÈNE MONTÉZIN (1874-1946) Les Nymphéas Signed Oil on canvas 27¾ x 29¾ in – 70.5 x 75.5 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist; thence by descent to the previous owner, France The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Cyril-Klein Montézin Museums: Glasgow; Belfast; Rochdale; Mannheim; Paris; Washington

No. 2

HENRY MORET (1856-1913) Paysage de moisson en Bretagne Signed Oil on canvas 20 x 24 in - 50.8 x 61 cm Painted circa 1905 The authenticity of this work has been confirmed Jean-Yves Rolland Museums: Cardiff; Manchester; Southampton; Paris, Musée d’Orsay; Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Reims; St. Petersburg, The Hermitage; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Washington DC, National Gallery of Art

No. 3

GUSTAVE LOISEAU (1865-1935) Le potager en hiver Signed and dated 1921; oil on canvas 21⅝ x 25¾ in – 54.9 x 65.4 cm The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Didier Imbert

Museums: Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University; Madrid, The Thyssen Museum; Paris, Musée d’Orsay; Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Versailles; Atlanta; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

No. 4

HENRI LEBASQUE (1865-1937) Baigneuses près des Andelys Signed; oil on canvas 21¼ x 25⅝ in - 54 x 65 cm D. Bazetoux, Henri Lebasque catalogue raisonné, Neuilly-sur-Marne, Vol.I, 2008, no.394 Museums: Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Madrid, The Thyssen Museum; Paris, Louvre, Musée d’Orsay; California; Cambridge MA, The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; Tokyo, National Museum of Fine Arts; Washington DC, National Gallery of Art

No. 5

EUGÈNE-LOUIS BOUDIN (1824-1898) Deauville, le Bassin Signed and dated ’96; oil on panel 12⅞ x 9⅝ in – 30.8 x 24.4 cm Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, 1824-1898, Vol.III, Paris, 1973, no.3543 Museums: London, National Gallery; Bayonne; Bordeaux; Caen; Cambrai; Dieppe; Honfleur; Nantes; Paris, Louvre and Musée d’Orsay; Rotterdam; Rouen; Stockholm; The Hague; Cleveland; New York and Washington, National Gallery

No. 6

EUGÈNE-LOUIS BOUDIN (1824-1898) Trouville, le port marée haute Signed; oil on panel 10⅝ x 8½ in – 26.8 x 21.7 cm Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, 1824-1898, Vol.II, Paris, 1973, no.1973

No. 7

GUY CARLETON WIGGINS (1883-1962) Federal Hall, Wall Street Signed Oil on canvas board 16 x 12 in – 40.6 x 30.5 cm Provenance: Private collection, USA Museums: Brooklyn; Chicago; Dallas; Hartford; Los Angeles; Newark; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Richmond; Syracuse; Washington

No. 8

LÉON DE SMET (1881-1966) Piccadilly Circus Signed and dated 1918 Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in – 71.1 x 101.6 cm Provenance: Private collection, Norway, acquired directly from the artist The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Piet Boyens Museums: Cardiff; Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts; Bruges; Brussels; Deinze; Deurle; Ghent; Ostend; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Tokyo

No. 9

ALEXEI ALEXEIEWITSCH HARLAMOFF (1840-1925) Annushka Signed; oil on canvas 22 x 18½ in – 56 x 47 cm O. Sugrobova-Roth & E. Lingenauber, Alexei Harlamoff: Catalogue raisonné, 2007, no.130, plate 120 Museums: Leningrad, Russian Museum; Moscow, Brobinski Collection, The Tretyakov Gallery; St. Petersburg, Alexander III Russian Museum

No. 10

CARL VILHELM HOLSØE (1863-1935) The Garden Door Signed Oil on canvas 20½ x 19⅝ in – 52 x 50 cm

Museums: Copenhagen; Denmark, National Gallery; Madrid, The Thyssen Museum; Munich

No. 11

EUGENE DE BLAAS (1843-1932) Mother’s Little Helpers Signed and dated 1884; oil on panel 36 x 26 in – 91.4 x 66 cm

No. 12

EUGENE DE BLAAS (1843-1932) The Venetian Flower Vendor Signed and dated 1901 Oil on canvas 39 x 51 in – 99.1 x 129.5 cm Provenance: The Yawkey Family Collection; Acquired by Mr & Mrs Haussner in Atlantic City, 1940; Private collection, USA Museums: Bournemouth; Leicester; Nottingham; Sheffield; Vienna, Kunsthistoriches Museum; Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria; Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales

No. 13

PAOLO SALA (1859-1924) The Emigrants Signed, inscribed ‘Buenos Aires’ and dated 1886 Oil on panel 15¾ x 11¾ in – 40 x 29.8 cm

Museums: Milan; Moscow; St. Petersburg

No. 14

PHILIPPE JOLYET (1832-1908) La Boîte aux Lettres Signed and dated 1904 Oil on canvas 56 x 27½ in – 142.2 x 70 cm Exhibited: Paris, Salon des Artistes Français, 1904, no.973

Museums: Bayonne; Chalon-sur-Saône; Dijon; Paris, Louvre and Galerie Roussel; Rouen; Tournus

No. 15

HAROLD KNIGHT, RA (1874-1961) Dawn Signed Oil on canvas 29 x 24 in – 73.6 x 61 cm Museums: Blackpool; Leeds; London, Tate Gallery; Merthyr Tydfil; Newcastle, Laing Art Gallery; Nottingham, Castle Museum; Penzance, Penlee Art Museum; Cape Town

No. 16

GEORG PAULI (1855-1935) La Collation des Paysans à la Récolte du Colza (Calvados) 1884 Signed and dated 1884 Oil on canvas 44½ x 83⅞ in – 113 x 213 cm Exhibited: Paris Salon 1885 No.1921 (HM); Stockholm, Opponents of 1885, National Museum, 1945, no.436 Literature: Svenskt Konstnärs Lexikon, Malmö, 1961, p.376; Hans Henrik Brummer, An Artist Couple: Hanna and Georg Pauli Exhibition Catalogue, Prince Eugens Waldemarsudde, Carlssons, 1998, pp.82-83 (Detail of image on front cover)

Museums: Finland, National Gallery; Helsinki; Sweden, National Museum, Nordic Museum and Gothenburg Museum of Art

No. 17

MONTAGUE DAWSON, RSMA, FRSA (1890-1973) The Fleet Messenger Signed Oil on canvas 26 x 36 in – 66 x 91.4 cm Provenance: Frost & Reed, London, acquired direct from the artist 8th February 1971

No. 18

MONTAGUE DAWSON, RSMA, FRSA (1890-1973) The Rum Runner Signed Oil on canvas 20 x 30 in – 50.8 x 76.2 cm

Museums: Cambridge; Edinburgh; London, British Museum, Imperial War Museum & National Maritime Museum; Newcastle, Laing Art Gallery; Portsmouth, Royal Naval Museum; Southampton; Newport, Rhode Island; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art

No. 19

MONTAGUE DAWSON, RSMA, FRSA (1890-1973) Neck and Neck Signed Oil on canvas 20 x 30 in – 50.8 x 76.2 cm L.G.G. Ramsey’s Catalogue raisonné, Montague Dawson, RSMA, FRSA, 1967, no.130 and in the special revised edition in 1970, no.166 (another version illustrated in colour)

Museums: Cambridge; Edinburgh; London, British Museum, Imperial War Museum & National Maritime Museum; Newcastle, Laing Art Gallery; Portsmouth, Royal Naval Museum; Southampton; Newport, Rhode Island; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art

No. 20

MONTAGUE DAWSON, RSMA, FRSA (1890-1973) The Bristol Privateer ‘Caesar’ Signed Oil on canvas 24 x 35⅞ in – 61 x 91.1 cm L.G.G. Ramsey’s Catalogue raisonné, Montague Dawson, RSMA, FRSA, 1967, no.32 and in the special revised edition in 1970, no.39 (illustrated)

No. 21

CHARLES EUPHRASIE KUWASSEG (1838-1904) French riverside towns Signed; oil on canvas 9¾ x 12¾ in – 24.7 x 32.4 cm A Pair Museums: Digne; La Rochelle; Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Périgueux; Pontoise; Montreal

No. 22

EDITH HUME (1843-1906) Knitting by the shore & A drink in the dunes Signed; oil on panel 6½ x 4 in – 16.5 x 10.2 cm A Pair

Museums: Bournemouth, Russell-Cotes Museum; London, Victoria & Albert Museum; Sheffield

No. 23

JOSÉ GALLEGOS Y ARNOSA (1859-1917) The signing of the marriage register, Seville Cathedral Signed, inscribed and dated 1889 Oil on panel 23¾ x 36 in – 60.5 x 91.4 cm

Museums: Cadiz; Madrid, Prado; Malaga, Carmen Thyssen Museum; Seville

No. 24

LÉON JOSEPH VOIRIN (1833-1887) Rue animée de Nancy Signed and dated 1878 Oil on canvas 18 x 13 in – 45.7 x 33 cm

Museums: Béziers and Nancy

No. 25

ANTON WEISS (1801-1851) Summer Abundance Signed and dated 1843; oil on canvas 28¾ x 23 in – 73 x 58.5 cm Museums: Blickling Hall Norfolk, National Trust

No. 26

BAREND CORNELIS KOEKKOEK (1803-1862) A Winter Landscape Signed and dated 1831 Oil on canvas 22½ x 28¾ in – 56.5 x 73 cm Literature: F. Gorissen, B. C. Koekkoek, 1803-1862, Düsseldorf, 1962, no.31-56-2 Museums: Sheffield; Amsterdam; Antwerp; Berlin; Bremen; Breslau; Cologne; Dijon; Dordrecht; Enschede; Groningen; Haarlem; The Hague; Leeuwarden; Leiden; Leipzig; Nantes; Otterlo; New York

No. 27

PETRUS VAN SCHENDEL (1806-1870) Vegetable market by night Signed; oil on panel 12 x 10 in – 30.5 x 25.4 cm Museums: London, HM The Queen Royal Collection; Amiens; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Brussels, The National Gallery; Groningen; Hanover; Munich; Nice; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuringen; Stuttgart; Montreal; Melbourne

No. 28

PETRUS VAN SCHENDEL (1806-1870) Vegetable and fish night market in The Hague Signed and dated 1851; oil on panel 25½ x 19¼ in– 65 x 49 cm

No. 29

WILLEM KOEKKOEK (1839-1895) Amsterdam Signed with initials Oil on canvas 20½ x 26in – 52 x 66 cm Provenance: Private collection since 1956

Museums: London, National Gallery; Amsterdam, Historisch Museum; The Hague; Kleve; Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts

No. 30

CHARLES HENRI JOSEPH LEICKERT (1816-1907) The Scheldt at sunset Signed and dated ’59 Oil on panel 20¼ x 29¼ in – 51.5 x 74.3 cm Provenance: Private collection since 1956

Museums: Amsterdam; Delft; The Hague; Maastricht; Mainz; Rotterdam; Utrecht

No. 31

WOUTERUS VERSCHUUR (1812-1874) Travellers resting by a well Signed Oil on canvas 29½ x 44½ in – 74.9 x 113 cm Provenance: Private collection, UK

Museums: London, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Trust; Bristol, Tyntesfield House; York; Amsterdam; Dordrecht; Enschede; Haarlem; Rotterdam

No. 32

JOHANN KLOMBECK & EUGÈNE VERBOECKHOVEN (1815-1893 / 1798-1881) A Winter Landscape Signed and dated 1871 Oil on canvas 36 x 48¼ in – 92 x 122.5 cm Provenance: Private collection, UK Museums: Kleve and Brussels (combined works) Klombeck: Leeds; London, Victoria and Albert Museum; Amsterdam; Kleve; Oss, Jan Cunen Museum Verboeckhoven: Leeds; Liverpool; London, The Wallace Collection; Amsterdam; Berlin; Brussels; Hamburg; Munich; Montreal

No. 33

HERMANUS KOEKKOEK SNR (1815-1882) On the Zuider Zee Signed Oil on panel 8 x 11¼ in – 20.6 x 28.3 cm

Museums: Glasgow, City Art Gallery; Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery; Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum; Courtrai; Delft, Paul Tetar Museum; Groningen; Rotterdam, Boijmans Museum, Prins Hendrik Museum; Melbourne

No. 33

HERMANUS KOEKKOEK SNR (1815-1882) On the Zuider Zee Signed Oil on panel 8 x 11¼ in – 20.6 x 28.3 cm A Pair

No. 34

FREDRIK MARINUS KRUSEMAN (1816-1882) A Dutch winter landscape Signed and dated 1859 Oil on canvas 31 x 43½ in – 78.5 x 110.5 cm Literature: M. van Heteren & J. de Meere, Fredrik Marinus Kruseman 1816-1882, Painter of Pleasing Landscapes, Schiedam, 1998, no.126

Museums: Maidstone; Amsterdam; Brussels; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; The Hague; Hamburg; Kleve; Leipzig, Museum of Fine Arts

No. 35

EVERARDUS MIRANI (1810-1881) A Winter Landscape Signed Oil on panel 18⅝ x 24⅝ in – 47.3 x 62.5 cm Provenance: Private collection since 1956

Museums: Amsterdam; Brussels

No. 36

ABRAHAM HULK SNR (1813-1897) Sunset on the Scheldt & A breezy day on the Scheldt Signed; oil on panel 7 x 10 in – 17.6 x 25.4 cm A Pair Museums: Amsterdam; Dordrecht; Enschede; Haarlem, Teylers Museum

No. 37

GEORGE HYDE POWNALL (1866-1939) The London Royal Exchange at night Signed Oil on board 6 x 9⅜ in – 15.2 x 23.2 cm Provenance: Private collection, UK

Museums: Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum; Melbourne, State Library of Victoria

No. 38

EDWARD LADELL (1821-1886) Still life of flowers, fruit and a bird’s nest Signed with monogram; oil on canvas 17 x 14 in – 43.2 x 35.6 cm

Museums: Bristol, City Art Gallery; Colchester and Essex Museum; Exeter, Royal Albert Memorial Museum; Harrogate City Art Gallery, Reading City Art Gallery

No. 38

EDWARD LADELL (1821-1886) Still life of fruit with a goblet of wine Signed with monogram; oil on canvas 17 x 14 in – 43.2 x 35.6 cm A Pair

No. 39

JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW (1836-1893) Scarborough from the seats near The Grand Hotel Signed and dated 1879 Oil on canvas 19⅞ x 29⅞ in – 50.7 x 76 cm Literature: Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, London, 2000, p.64, plate 51

No. 40

JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW (1836-1893) Greenock Harbour Signed and dated 1881 Oil on canvas 20 x 30 in – 50.8 x 76.2 cm

Museums: Bradford; Gateshead; Halifax; Harrogate; Huddersfield; Hull; Kirklees; Leeds; Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery; London, Tate Gallery and the Guildhall Art Gallery; Preston; Scarborough; Wakefield; Whitby; Hartford; Kansas; Minneapolis; New Haven; New Orleans; Victoria; Port Elizabeth

No. 41

HAROLD HARVEY (1874-1941) The Gate, Spring Signed and dated ’19 Oil on canvas 30¼ x 25 in – 76.8 x 63.5 cm Exhibited: Penzance, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Wild Cornwall, 21 March - 13 June 2009 Museums: Birmingham; Cardiff; Newlyn; Penzance

No. 42

CHARLES ERNEST CUNDALL, RA (1890-1971) New York Harbour, circa 1939 Signed Oil on canvas 20 x 36 in – 50.8 x 91.4 cm For another New York view see the UK Government Collection, no.3169

Museums: London, Tate Britain, Imperial War Museum, Maritime Museum; Manchester, City Art Gallery; New Brunswick; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada

No. 43

SIR ALFRED J. MUNNINGS, KCVO, PPRA (1878-1959) Going out at Epsom Signed, inscribed and dated 1929 Oil on panel 16 x 23 in – 40.6 x 58.4 cm Exhibited: New York, Albright Gallery, A J Munnings RA, 7 February - 31 March 1931, no.14 Private collections: HM The Queen, Lord Fairhaven Museums: Birmingham; Liverpool; London, Tate Gallery; Norwich; Preston; Brisbane; New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University; Melbourne

No. 44

SIR ALFRED J. MUNNINGS, KCVO, PPRA (1878-1959) Willows on the Stour Signed Oil on canvas 20 x 24 in – 50.8 x 61 cm To be included in the forthcoming book Tradition and Modernity: The Works of Sir Alfred Munnings being prepared by Lorian Peralta-Ramos

No. 45

DUNCAN GRANT (1885-1978) Still life with fruit and a jug Signed and dated ‘60 Oil on paper laid on board 15 x 31¼ in – 38.2 x 79.2 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist, circa 1965

Museums: Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery; Chichester, Pallant House; Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland; London, The Courtauld Gallery, Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum; Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University; Wales, National Museums and Galleries; Worcester City Art Gallery

No. 46

CHARLES GINNER (1878-1952) Bishop’s Cleeve from Cleeve Hill Signed; oil on canvas 24 x 20 in – 61 x 50.8 cm Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1951, no.3; London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Charles Ginner: Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, 1953, no.26 Museums: Aberdeen; Bristol; Cambridge; Leicester; London, The Imperial War Museum, Tate Britain; Manchester; Oxford; Southampton

No. 47

DAME ELISABETH FRINK, CBE, RA (1930-1993) Small sitting down horse Signed ‘Frink A/C’; bronze Length, 6¼ in – 15.9 cm Conceived in 1972 and cast in an edition of 12 A. Ratuszniak (ed.), Elisabeth Frink Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, 2013, no.FCR233, another cast illustrated

No. 48

DAME ELISABETH FRINK, CBE, RA (1930-1993) Small dog Signed and numbered 4/10; bronze 9¼ x 11 in – 24 x 28 cm Conceived in 1986; cast in February 1987 A. Ratuszniak, Elisabeth Frink: Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, 2013, no.FCR358, another cast illustrated

Museums: Cambridge; Eastbourne; Edinburgh, National Gallery of Modern Art; London, Government Art Collection, Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum; Norwich; Manchester; Oxford; Yorkshire Sculpture Park

No. 49

L.S. LOWRY, RA, RBA, LG, NS (1887-1976) The Canal at Worsley Signed and dated 1946 Oil on artists board 12 x 16 in – 30.5 x 40.6 cm

No. 50

L.S. LOWRY, RA, RBA, LG, NS (1887-1976) Three Figures Signed Oil on panel 8¾ x 6 in – 22.5 x 15.5 cm

No. 51

L.S. LOWRY, RA, RBA, LG, NS (1887-1976) The Playground Signed and dated 1945 Oil on canvas 18¼ x 24½ in – 46.4 x 62.2 cm Exhibited: London, Lefevre Gallery, Recent Paintings by L.S. Lowry, March 1951, no.24

Museums: Cambridge; Glasgow; Leicester; London, Government Art Collection, Tate Britain; Manchester; Nottingham; Salford; Swindon; Wakefield; New Haven, Yale Center for British Art; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

No. 52

EDWARD BRIAN SEAGO, RWS, RBA (1910-1974) The Orwell at Pin Mill, Suffolk Signed Oil on board 16½ x 24¼ in – 42 x 61.6 cm Provenance: P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., London

Museums: Chichester; London, HM The Queen Royal Collection, Government Art Collection, Guildhall Art Gallery, Imperial War Museum, National Portrait Gallery; Norwich; Reading; Southend; New Haven, Yale Center for British Art; San Francisco; New Brunswick

No. 53

EDWARD BRIAN SEAGO, RWS, RBA (1910-1974) Street in Hong Kong Signed; oil on board 14 x 10½ in – 35.5 x 26.6 cm Provenance: Marlborough Fine Art, London

No. 54

HENRY SCOTT TUKE, RA, RWS (1858-1929) The Bather Signed and dated 1924 Oil on panel 15½ x 12¾ in – 39.5 x 32 cm Provenance: The Fine Art Society, London, September 1954 Museums: Bristol; Falmouth; Glasgow; Leeds; Liverpool; London, Tate, Guildhall, NPG; Oxford; Penlee; Truro; York; New Haven, Yale Center for British Art

No. 55

WALTER RICHARD SICKERT, ARA (1860-1942) Barnet Fair Signed; oil on canvas 27 x 28 in – 68.5 x 71.1 cm W. Baron, Sickert Paintings and Drawings, London, 2006, p.470, no.537 Museums: Cambridge; Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland; Glasgow; Leeds; Liverpool; London, Courtauld Gallery, Tate Gallery, Government Art Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum; Manchester; Oxford; Brisbane, Queensland Art Gallery; New Haven, Yale Center for British Art

No. 56

VANESSA BELL (1879-1961) The Harbour, Newhaven Signed with initials Oil on canvas 16 x 22½ in – 40.6 x 57.2 cm Another work of the same subject hangs in Monk’s House, National Trust home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf

Museums: Aberdeen; Cardiff, National Museum of Wales; Chichester; Eastbourne; Leeds; Leicester; London, Courtauld Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Victoria & Albert Museum; Manchester; Southampton; New Haven, Yale Center for British Art

No. 57

IVOR ROBERTS-JONES, RA (1913-1996) Sir Winston Churchill Inscribed and numbered ‘Churchill/434’; bronze Height 20 in – 51 cm (excluding base) Conceived in 1971. From an edition of 500 Museums: Leeds; London, Government Art Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Tate Gallery; Cardiff, National Museum Wales Parliament Square Statue, London

No. 58

DAVID JAMES (1853-1904) Surf Signed and dated ‘97 Oil on canvas 25 x 50⅛ in – 63.5 x 127.3 cm Painted on the coast of Cornwall

Museums: Bristol; Cornwall; Gateshead, Shipley Art Gallery; London, National Maritime Museum

No. 59

EFFIE SPRING-SMITH (1907-1974) On the Baize Joyce Gardner, World Champion 1931-3, 1935-8 Signed; oil on canvas 29⅛ x 24½ in – 74 x 62 cm Museums: Ipswich; London, Guildhall Art Gallery

No. 60

SIR WILLIAM RUSSELL FLINT, PPRWS, RA (1880-1969) Variations VI Signed and dated 1963 Watercolour on paper 19⅝ x 26½ in – 50 x 67.3 cm

Museums: Glasgow; Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery; London, National Maritime Museum, Royal Watercolour Society, The Courtauld Gallery, Victoria & Albert; Newport; Southampton

No. 61

SIR WILLIAM RUSSELL FLINT, PPRWS, RA (1880-1969) The Twisted Chain, Cecilia Signed Watercolour on paper 14⅜ x 21⅜ in – 36.5 x 54.2 cm Provenance: Frost & Reed, London

Biographical information 1.

PIERRE-EUGÈNE MONTÉZIN, Les Nymphéas Born in 1874 to an affluent Parisian family Montézin embarked on a career as an artist, achieving success when he came under the influence of Ernest Quost (1844-1931) in 1903, exhibiting at the Paris salon the same year. Montézin had a passion for life in the country, working, like the Impressionists, ‘en plein air’ portraying the honest labour of rural life and celebrating those who worked the land. This immersion in the landscape also brought Montézin into contact with Claude Monet’s seminal series of paintings executed at the artist’s home in Giverny in the heart of the French countryside. This series of some two hundred and fifty paintings of waterlilies, painted over the course of three decades, form one of the most iconic in Western Art. Montézin’s Les Nymphéas, seen here relates to Monet’s works from the first decade of the Twentieth century. The artist has dispensed with a horizon, the lake fills the compositional space, the arched top emphasising the continuation of the expanse of water. The waterlilies interspersed with the floral tipped stems of the Irises, the reflections of which, juxtaposed with the vertical stems, creates a complex interaction of elements in a shimmering harmonious space of reality and reflection. The whole is created with a myriad of colours, overridingly greens and blues, with bold spontaneous brushstrokes of purple, reds, orange and white with the ground also used. In terms of subject, composition and execution this is undoubtedly one of the artist’s finest paintings.

2.

HENRY MORET, Paysage de moisson en Bretagne Henry Moret was born in Normandy, but he had spent his military service in Lorient, Brittany and its landscape and coastline was to hold a lifelong fascination for the artist. He trained in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and made his debut at the Salon in 1880.

However, Moret rejected the academic style for that of his contemporaries and in particular Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin. He was drawn to Pont-Aven and the thriving international community of artists, and while others moved away, including Gauguin in 1891, Moret remained painting the landscape, coastline and fishing villages of Brittany. In 1896 he settled in Doëlan and remained there, interspersed with visits to his dealer in Paris, the renowned Paul Durand-Ruel, who organised exhibitions of his work in New York in 1900 and again in 1902. A highly successful artist Moret was to develop a style very much of his own, seen at its finest in this landscape, with an evident debt to Gauguin and most particularly Claude Monet. It is a style born of the landscape, with broad, bold, free brushstrokes interspersed with small flecks of colour and short vigorous strokes laden with paint creating deep impasto the edges of which refract the light. It is a landscape in his beloved Brittany, a church and village on a rise silhouetted against the blue and breezy sky; it is summer with the harvest in and a panorama of fields and hedges of small holdings. With his characteristic vibrant hues of greens, blues and deep pinks, together with the clear atmospheric effects, this is an exemplar of Moret’s naturalistic post-impressionistic style.

3.

GUSTAVE LOISEAU, Le potager en hiver Gustave Loiseau was born in Paris in 1865 and raised there and in Pontoise. He studied under Gauguin in Pont-Aven in 1890, but it was the Impressionism of Camille Pissarro and the Divisionism of Georges Seurat that led him to develop his own unique style of Post-Impressionism. Loiseau painted along the West coast and in Paris and its environs, but as a disciple of Pissarro it was appropriate that Pontoise was a frequent subject, so much so that a school there is named after the artist. In the work seen here, ‘the kitchen garden in winter’, we see the town of Pontoise lit by a shaft of sunlight, the buildings emphasised with heavily worked impasto, the foreground painted ‘en treillis’, the cross-hatching that was a hallmark of the artist, a technique that enabled him to catch the rapidly changing light. Appearing spontaneous, the paint layers are thoughtfully built up, in addition using the colour of the fine canvas; the layers of glazes, paint and impasto interspersed create a sense of depth, and the heavy impasto in the middle ground lends distance in relation to the cross-hatching of the foreground. Blues and pinks predominate, interspersed with reds, greens, and purple, bold colours in a winter composition demonstrating the ‘bravura’ of the artist.

4.

HENRI LEBASQUE, Baigneuses près des Andelys Henri Lesbasque painted in the summers at Les Andelys, the subject of this painting, over a number of years. An area of hills, lakes and rivers in Normandy, and home to the ruins of Chateau Gaillard built by Richard I on the heights above the Eure, it was and remains an area of recreation. Lebasque painted members of his family there in 1915, painting his eldest daughter Marthe in a boat much like that in this composition. Lebasque was born in 1865 and had studied in Angers and Paris, where he exhibited regularly at the Salon. He became well acquainted with Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the pointillism of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, all of whom were to be of significant influence on his work. Lebasque was also an admirer of the Nabis group particularly Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, a lifelong friend, being drawn to their restrained subjects, interiors and

domestic life, as well as landscape. In 1903 he founded the ‘Salon d’Automne’ with his friend Henri Matisse where the Fauves were to exhibit two years later. He developed his own distinctive style, as seen in this composition, with a significant debt to the Impressionists and specifically Renoir and Bonnard. We see here how he portrays a family happily on holiday, reclining on the lakeshore, children swimming and contemplating doing so. Painted ‘en plein air’ he captures a moment of utter relaxation, the figures all convincing in their various roles on a warm summer’s day and painted with the delicate sense of light immediately recognisable in the artist’s work.

5.

EUGÈNE-LOUIS BOUDIN, Deauville, le Bassin Boudin, the son of a seaman, knew Deauville well having been born along the coast in Honfleur and later making his home in the town. Few artists had such an intimate knowledge of the Normandy coast and in particular the harbour at Deauville. Boudin was unique among artists in his ability to convey the mood and atmosphere, the activity, loading and unloading of vessels in a busy port. The harbour is filled with boats and shipping at high tide, the water reflecting the hue of the sky, shimmering with reflections. It is a composition imbued with sunlight, blue sky glimpsed through a veil of cloud against which the town, masts, spars and rigging of the shipping are silhouetted. Boudin stands out in his capacity to capture the ethereal relationship between sea and sky and it was for good reason that Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot referred to him as ‘king of the skies’. Claude Monet learned the skill of painting skies from Boudin on their trips along the Seine in the 1860’s. Boudin exhibited alongside Monet in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874, showing a total of 13 works.

6.

EUGÈNE-LOUIS BOUDIN, Trouville, le port marée haute Boudin was a frequent visitor to Trouville, a mere walk from his home across the river Touques in Deauville. He painted the harbour in Trouville in all weathers, at all times of the day, at low and, as here at high tide with a vessel at its mooring. We see the masts, yards and rigging silhouetted against a heavily worked leaden sky, presaging rain, another single-masted boat lies close by, a sailor clambering over the bows from his tender, the mast and shrouds again silhouetted against the backdrop of the town and sky. The painting is marked by the distinctive reflections in the calm waters, disturbed only by a gentle swell, and the use of the panel as a means of highlighting the distant harbour walls and warehousing, conveying a sense of distance. Boudin often excels himself in these atmospheric works where a subtle change of tone, a brushstroke even, can convey so much.

7.

GUY CARLETON WIGGINS, Federal Hall, Wall Street Guy Wiggins is synonymous with views of Manhattan under snow. In this work the artist portrays one of the most iconic buildings in New York, one of the most important sites in the entire USA. Here had stood the New York City Hall, built c.1700, the First Capitol Building following Independence; the First Congress met there, and George Washington was inaugurated President in 1789. It was demolished in 1812 and the present impressive colonnaded building erected as the New York Customs House in 1842, later used as the US sub-Treasury in 1862, and it is now a museum. In 1883 the statue of George Washington, seen in the painting, was erected. Wiggins has chosen to paint this scene looking from Broad Street, which is bisected by Wall Street, and echoes the New York views of Childe Hassam, with flags flying. Wiggins has captured the chill atmosphere of a winter’s day in Manhattan, pedestrians hunched in thick coats, with colourful umbrellas raised, battle through the snow, while the quintessential yellow cabs hug the curb.

8.

LÉON DE SMET, Piccadilly Circus Léon de Smet and his family moved to London following the outbreak of war in 1914. By this time de Smet had represented Belgium at the Venice Biennale in 1909, and had exhibited internationally with Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, he was an admirer of the Impressionists and of Georges Seurat. He settled in London, not far from Piccadilly Circus, which he painted in 1917, and again in the present work, ‘a tour de force’ of 1918, a magnificent panorama of an iconic London landmark. Painted on a coarse hessian canvas, a reflection of the times in which he was working, de Smet makes good use of both the colour and texture of the ground, which together with his use of thick impasto creates an almost tactile quality of light and shade within the composition. This is a complete urban subject, in marked contrast to the Luminist landscapes of his youth, with a convincing sense of dynamism and movement about the throng of people, the various conveyances, motorised buses, horse-drawn carts, hansom cabs, cars and bicycles in this, the epicentre of London. The London years, both before the armistice and on his return, saw de Smet adopt a style that showed his admiration for the French Impressionists, together with his interest in Pointillism and the work of Georges Seurat, seen here in this, one of the finest examples among the artist’s oeuvre.

9.

ALEXEI ALEXEIEWITSCH HARLAMOFF, Annushka The Russian Imperial Royal Family and numerous distinguished collectors throughout Europe were patrons of Alexei Harlamoff during his lifetime. He was a renowned portrait painter, but it is for his paintings of the innocence of childhood that he is best remembered. In this present work a young girl is seen in profile, more formally dressed than is often the case, wearing a necklace of pearls, ornate earrings and a white cotton blouse and tunic. The sheen of her auburn hair, cascading below her shoulders, glistens in the shafts of sunlight, sunlight that illuminates her delicate profile against the dark background in an almost photographic fashion. The delicate flesh tones and above all her limpid eye convey an allegory of innocence and childhood.

10.

CARL VILHELM HOLSØE, The Garden Door Holsøe made his considerable reputation as a painter of interiors, he was in addition a remarkable figure painter. Often seen from behind, or in profile, as here, he was able to convey so much with such economy and subtlety. In this composition we instinctively know that the subject is young, from the tilt of her head, the quarter profile, the casually crossed leg and the dress slipping on her shoulder. All is gleaned from Holsøe’s delicate brushwork, use of colour and acute observation seen in the painting of the young woman’s neck and shoulder, the folds of her dress and his delicate use of light and shade in her dress. It is a contemplative work, calm and tranquil, the eye following those of the sitter gazing through the open door to the garden beyond. The reflection of the garden seen in the mirror lends a more expansive dimension to the composition and in addition demonstrates the artist’s finesse in compositional terms and technique, achieving a sense of space and intimacy.

11. EUGENE DE BLAAS, Mother’s Little Helpers Above all else de Blaas portrayed everyday Venetian life, whether it be an orange seller by a canal, a family gathered in a courtyard, or, as here, a kitchen interior, and always with a narrative; it was this that brought him his success. Interiors allowed de Blaas to display the full range of his virtuosity, his exquisite technique in the rendition of objects and fabrics together with his finesse in the characterisation of figures and the narrative that connects one with another. We see his dexterity in the painting of the brass cauldron, the reflection on the plate high on the shelf, the glass on the tabletop and his delicacy in the painting of the string with which the joint is being tied. Interaction between the figures is always present in his compositions, here all are involved in the preparation of a meal, even the cat waiting expectantly, the spoon held by the baby, who also looks on expectantly, is exquisitely drawn, however the young girl is undoubtedly the focal point of this wonderful composition.

12.

EUGENE DE BLAAS, The Venetian Flower Vendor It was magnificent paintings, as seen here, of everyday life in Venice that brought de Blaas international renown and established the artist as the foremost exponent of this Venetian genre. Born in Austria, his father Karl was appointed Professor of the Academy in Venice, Eugene de Blaas followed as Professor of the Academy and was unrivalled in his chosen genre. Venice was an essential stop on the Grand Tour. Eighteenth century visitors would return home with views of the city by the likes of Antonio Canaletto or Francesco Guardi; nineteenth century visitors, in addition to vedute paintings, wanted more, a remembrance of everyday life in this unique and historic city. Everyday life in Venice was to provide de Blaas with a wealth of subject matter, interior scenes, dressmaking or cooking, figures gossiping by a canal or collecting shellfish by the seashore, or as here a flower seller.

We are on lookers in a painting that shows de Blaas at the peak of his considerable powers in terms of scale of the composition, the narrative and in the technical virtuosity that he displays in the execution of this work. He shows an extraordinary grasp of the compositional balance in such an ambitious work together with a masterful handling of colour which is vibrant and yet harmonious. As onlookers we see the flower seller, gazing up at the object of his affection, while ignoring his interlocutor; two friends look on with interest at the exchange, and a young girl is seen lost in her own imagination. It is a wonderful story of love that de Blaas weaves. The magnificence of the composition owes much to the artists technical virtuosity, seen throughout, the depiction of the weathered brick serving as a backdrop to the women dressed in vibrantly coloured fabrics, the rendering of the softly draped cottons, the alluring skin tones and the expressive characterisation of the women themselves. We see the exquisite virtuosity in the painting of the basket of flowers and the care and detail devoted to the depiction of the cloth, casually, and incidentally draped on a chair, this is indeed a painting in which de Blaas has excelled.

13.

PAOLA SALA, The Emigrants Paola Sala was a precocious, talented and well-travelled artist. Born in Lombardy in 1859, Sala lived in Milan and studied at the Brera Academy in the city. By 1880 he was exhibiting in Naples and the following year exhibited a Venetian subject in Milan.

He travelled widely in Italy and beyond, painting in St Petersburg, Vienna and in London; he exhibited a series of London views in Milan in 1886. This same year Sala travelled to Buenos Aires, home to a significant Italian émigré population; our painting represents a scene on a ship outbound for Argentina. Sala has captured a scene of hope, families and individuals looking forward

to a new world and a land of opportunity. A wonderful figurative painter we see a father holding his daughter, mother in the act of searching for something, a grandfather caught in a pensive moment, his wife, dressed in black, perhaps glances towards the artist. Sala has portrayed the animation of the throngs of passengers gathered, mingling and conversing before the lifeboat davits on the sunlit deck, rigging above set against the blue sky. Washing hangs drying in the sun, half unseen, a figure reclines on a cabin roof and to the left below we see the foaming sea. Sala has caught the immediacy of a moment, the hopes and optimism of a new and better life ahead.

14.

PHILIPPE JOLYET, La Boîte aux Lettres Famed for his figurative subjects, there are few finer works by the artist than this example, a wonderful painting of sibling affection. Jolyet had exhibited at the Salon from 1863, winning a medal in 1889 and his works can be seen to influence those of Emile Friant (1863-1932), works of both artists sharing a charming simplicity. This painting, unmistakably French, portrays an elder sister in blue, ribbon in her hair, lifting her younger sibling to post a letter; there is an air of concentration to this simple act, perhaps denoting the importance of the letter or the first time that she has been entrusted with the task. The rendering of the folds in the dresses, both blue and pink, the flawless flesh tones, the contrasting hair, blond curls and auburn tresses and the observation in the action of lifting and holding all bear testament to the outstanding qualities of the artist.

15.

HAROLD KNIGHT, Dawn Harold Knight and his wife the artist Laura Knight moved from Yorkshire to Newlyn in Cornwall in 1907, and it was here in Newlyn that this painting is likely to have been executed a few years later. The figure in the composition is thought to be Florence, the first wife of Alfred Munnings; they had visited Cornwall in 1910 and returned to live there in Lamorna the following year.

They were friends of the Knights, and the quiet and introverted Harold had formed a close friendship with Florence. Painted ‘en plein air’ we see the subjects face obscured as she is pictured turning away from the viewer, captured momentarily as she turns, arm raised mid gesture, her shimmering gown reflecting the pale hues of the tall foxgloves, themselves silhouetted against the cool ethereal morning light. She appears harmoniously surrounded and encompassed in a tranquil setting, at one with nature.

It is a romantic and moving composition, painted with a delicacy and subtlety of form and colour, that lends an air of mystery.

16.

GEORG PAULI, La Collation des Paysans à la Récolte du Colza (Calvados) 1884 Painted in 1884 and exhibited at the Paris Salon the following year, receiving an Honourable Mention, this is undoubtedly the artist’s finest work. It is a work that epitomises the Naturalism of Jules Bastien-Lepage and Léon Lhermitte, a truthful representation of harvest time and all that it entails. The entire family are involved in getting in the harvest before the onset of a summer shower, with a break for sustenance, the farmer cutting a cheese and drinks being poured, a younger son having a surreptitious smoke. Pauli has portrayed a convincingly authentic scene of rural life, the social realism inspired by the work of Bastien-Lepage, it is a celebration of rural life, the commitment to the land, together with the gritty reality, weather beaten, hands accustomed to the work of harvest and the family working and resting as one. Pauli captures the hardship through the characterisation of the figures, yet also the intimacy in the exchange between mother and son, we see the daughter, reclining in the foreground, drinking and lost in thought and the baby sleepily spoon-fed. His technique is exemplary, the flesh tones of youth and age, the reflections in the glasses, the sheen on the pail, the gnarled hands and the rural landscape of Calvados. It is a painting by an artist at the peak of his powers and an exemplar of naturalism.

17.

MONTAGUE DAWSON, The Fleet Messenger Dawson was as accomplished at portraying historical narrative subjects as he was at depicting the mighty Tea Clippers or racing yachts. He particularly favoured British maritime subjects from the era of the Napoleonic Wars, and subjects related to the greatest naval battle of the period, Trafalgar. Dawson painted the First Rates, those ships that, like HMS Victory, would form the line of battle, but he also favoured the smaller Naval vessels, Brigs, Cutters, Ketches and Schooners. In this composition we see just such a vessel carrying news of the victory at Trafalgar leaving the Fleet in its wake. This vessel used for its speed, would be heading for Falmouth Cornwall from where news of the victory would be carried by post riders to the Admiralty in London.

Dawson’s knowledge and experience of the sea from his service in the Royal Navy and as a lifelong sailor is evident in all his work and never more so than here. Dawson has portrayed the vessel sailing before the wind with all sails aloft, a mild breeze blowing.

The sails are full, and the fleeting play of light and shade convey the sense of movement across the water. The rigging is delineated with extraordinary detail and the crew portrayed as active seamen bending to the tasks at hand. Dawson’s painting of crew and sailors in his compositions is often overlooked; he had a real interest in portraying figures carrying out their tasks and duties with genuine intent. It is of course in his rendering of the sea, and the fashion in which vessels move through and over the briny deep for which he is deservedly renowned, and all his prowess is evident in this composition.

18.

MONTAGUE DAWSON, The Rum Runner Historical subjects formed a significant part of Dawson’s oeuvre. He particularly enjoyed the narrative of a composition, whether it be a documented naval engagement, two clippers competing in ‘the race home’, or, as here, an imaginary but no doubt relatively commonplace event, a smuggler being chased by a revenue cutter. Dawson, with all his expertise in deep sea sailing captures the scene perfectly; with taut rigging under full sail, the smuggler sails as close to the wind as she dares hoping to escape ‘The Revenue’, who have already landed a blow, a cannon ball holing the mainsail. In the bow the helmsman keeps his course while crewmen at the stern nervously observe the closing distance with the Cutter. It is a composition of tension and drama with vessels and the sea perfectly rendered by the foremost maritime artist of his age.

19.

MONTAGUE DAWSON, Neck and Neck Dawson was a lifelong sailor having served before the mast in ocean-going sailing vessels prior to joining the Royal Navy. Such experience allowed him to paint the mighty Clippers sailing in the southern latitudes with such verisimilitude and conviction.

Dawson continued to sail, moving to Dawes Stream, the house he acquired in 1934 in Milford-on-Sea overlooking the Solent. It was this body of water between the south coast and the Isle of Wight that was to feature in so many of his paintings, including this work. As a sailor, Dawsons rendition of the choppy sea is unrivalled, a strong breeze whips spray off the crests while the Yachts heel in the wind under full sail, a crewman sitting on the boom, the skipper at the tiller, holding his course, has an eye on his rival off the starboard beam. It is a vibrant work in which the artist has captured a sense of the yachts cleaving through the waters, a strong breeze evident under a blue summer sky.

20.

MONTAGUE DAWSON, The Bristol Privateer ‘Caesar’ Dawson’s depictions of naval engagements are among the most sought after works in his oeuvre. In the present painting he portrays an action from the American war of Independence (1775-83) during which many merchant vessels were fitted out as Privateers sailing under ‘letters of marque’ that authorised them to attack enemy shipping in exchange for a share in prize money.

In this action of 27th June 1782, the Caesar, a sloop of twenty guns owned by Gresley Blake and Co. of Bristol and captained by Valentine Baker, was escorting a convoy of merchantmen homeward bound from the Caribbean when she was attacked off Lundy Island by a French frigate of thirty-two guns. The Caesar fought her to a standstill whereupon she surrendered, only to make her escape when the damage to the Caesar became apparent, to be captured subsequently by another British vessel. Baker was awarded a silver trophy by the merchants and insurers for his defence of the convoy.

21.

CHARLES EUPHRASIE KUWASSEG, French riverside towns The son of Austrian parents who settled in France, Kuwasseg was born in 1838. His father, Karl, was a renowned painter who exhibited at the Paris Salon, Kuwasseg also exhibited contemporaneously at the Salon, making his debut in 1855. Kuwasseg, like his father, travelled extensively throughout Europe, venturing as far north as Yorkshire and from Florence to Amsterdam, Bavaria to Brittany. He was to become renowned for his views of harbour scenes and towns, this pair of paintings, characteristic subjects for the artist, typify his finest work, portraying prosperous towns on quiet slow-moving rivers. Navigable rivers such as these would themselves bring prosperity through trade, and in each of these works we see large prosperous houses in towns with churches of significant size. Kuwasseg captures an overriding sense of tranquillity, it is perhaps a day of rest with figures promenading around the towns and outskirts, rowing on the river, fishing from the bank, conversing and interacting one with another. He is an artist with an acute eye for detail, the washerwomen at the river edge eying the artist, the pose, balance and stance of each perfectly depicted using a slight change of tone. We see the reflections in the slow-moving water and a weir implied with a trace of white, his use of light and shade conveying a sense of depth and distance beneath clouds scudding across an afternoon sky. These are paintings that exemplify Kuwasseg’s success and popularity in his lifetime and beyond.

22.

EDITH HUME, Knitting by the shore & A drink in the dunes Brought up in Cornwall, Hume had a lifelong interest in subjects related to the sea and coast. She and her husband, a fellow artist Thomas Hume, travelled extensively painting, from Étretat to Scheveningen. In the Netherlands Hume admired artists related to the Hague School, specifically David Constant Artz (1837-1890), to whose work Hume’s bears comparison. Hume had a specific interest in the life of women working in rural communities in both rural and domestic labour. As in these works, she portrayed women and girls going about their labour in an industrious fashion clothed appropriately to their working-class status, a gentle form of social realism. Hume’s paintings such as these were reproduced in the ‘British Workwoman’, a Christian Temperance magazine, aimed at women working in domestic and rural environments. Both works are set in the Dunes, one with the mast of a fishing vessel visible, a young mother gives her daughter a bowl of milk, her rag doll lies in the foreground, and in the companion a sibling shows her sister how to knit, a fine demonstration of industry and values. As is often the case in Hume’s work we see,

a moral message on care and sharing the benefits one has. Both paintings are accurately rendered in terms of costume, character and setting, exemplifying an idealised form of rural working life.

23.

JOSÉ GALLEGOS Y ARNOSA, The signing of the marriage register, Seville Cathedral José Gallegos y Arnosa was born in the town of Jerez de la Frontera, in 1859. He studied in Madrid under Frederigo di Madrazo and, like so many of his contemporaries, travelled to Italy to seek patrons on the Grand Tour spending time in Venice and settling in Rome where he joined a colony of expatriate Spanish painters. This work was executed in Rome in 1889, one of a series of paintings on religious and ecclesiastical themes that allowed him to explore the ornate interiors, rich fabrics, and fascinating characters, as seen here, a triumph of technique colour and content. It was just such a work, ‘Wedding in the Sacristy of the Cathedral of Seville’ for which Gallegos was awarded the gold medal at the International Exhibition in Berlin in 1891. This present work is a carefully balanced composition around the focal point of the bride being handed the quill with which to sign the marriage register. In the foreground a young woman holding an exotic fan is talking intently with her husband, her shimmering purple dress a highlight of colour. Diagonally opposite and conveying the impression of the viewer as a hidden observer, a man stoops to retrieve a fallen fan, lesser members of the wedding party. The focal point itself is a riot of colour and dazzling technique, seen in the delicate lace, the colourful silks, satins and velvets, in marked contrast to the sombre robes of the legal and ecclesiastical figures, concentrating intently on the register. This is a ‘tour de force’ in the oeuvre of Gallegos.

24.

LÉON JOSEPH VOIRIN, Rue animée de Nancy Léon Joseph Voirin was born, and worked for much of his life, in Nancy, a late Baroque city on the banks of the Moselle, and the former capital of Lorraine. A prosperous, successful, riverside city provided Voirin with patrons desirous of views of their city. Voirin, in addition to painting genre and military subjects, produced scenes like the present painting, of the bustling streets with crowded shopfronts and ladies and gentlemen promenading. As Jean Beraud was to do in Paris, Voirin was portraying the everyday life in a prosperous city. In this work we see an elegantly dressed young mother accompanied by her children and a maid, a boy with a drum leading the way, a passing craftsman casts an admiring glance in the direction of the family, and a rather grand lady passes instructions to her coachman. As the affluent street of eighteenth-century buildings winds into the distance a crowded omnibus pulls into view; Voirin has created a real sense of life and movement about the composition.

25.

ANTON WEISS, Summer Abundance Still life painting was a long-established tradition in the Netherlands continuing into the Nineteenth Century with Georgius van Os, Hendrik Reekers and, seen here, Bohemian-born Anton Weiss. Weiss lived in Amsterdam where he studied at the Royal Academy, exhibiting in Haarlem, The Hague and Rotterdam, as well as Amsterdam and beyond. He and his contemporaries were much influenced by the work of Jan van Huysum (1682–1749), as is evident in this opulent still life. Weiss has set this abundant floral display in a bronze urn on a marble ledge, lit from above and to the left. He has achieved a sense of depth through the foreshortening of the rose and antirrhinum lying on the ledge, and through the light illuminating a fallen flower behind the urn with an exquisite use of artifice and technique. The artist’s depiction of the flowers is extraordinary, seen in the lush petals of the Peony, the delicacy of the Azalea, the pale green of the foliage and the exquisite detail in the minute flowers of the ‘forget-menots’. It is a magnificent still life painting steeped in the great tradition of the previous three centuries.

26.

BAREND CORNELIS KOEKKOEK, A Winter Landscape Barend Cornelis Koekkoek is a name synonymous with the Dutch Romantic movement. Born in 1803 he was of a generation influenced by the Romanticism sweeping through Europe and was firmly identified as the progenitor as it coalesced into a distinctive style in the Netherlands. Having trained with his father, Johannes, and in Middleburg, he studied at the Academy in Amsterdam, 1823-26. He returned to the city 1828-32, at the time that the present painting, ‘A Winter Landscape’ and the companion, ‘A Summer Landscape’ (whereabouts unknown) were painted. This is a picturesque subject, a prosperous looking village, at the foot of a snow-covered wooded ridge, nestled around a church, large houses, farm and a hostelry. Characteristically, shafts of sunlight illuminate the painting, reflecting off areas of glistening pristine snow, and illuminating the well-trodden pathway.

At the centre of the composition a group of woodmen are gathered around a fire, a small child pauses, half turning as he looks on; among the group a table is set, and, in an indication of Koekkoek’s consummate finesse, a glass is seen, indicated wholly convincingly by two small flecks of white. A further characteristic example of the artist’s dexterity is seen in the gnarled oak trees, and the fine and delicate tracery of their branches silhouetted against the sky, the depiction of the rough textured bark another hallmark of the artist. The snow is beautifully rendered, pristine cold and crisp, muddy and thawed by passing figures and carts, the stream frozen hard and the snow thawing on the pitched roof. It is an acutely observed and convincing composition by one of the finest Dutch artists of the Nineteenth Century.

27.

PETRUS VAN SCHENDEL, Vegetable market by night Petrus van Schendel was renowned for his paintings of nocturnal market scenes and was the acknowledged master of the genre.

Born near Breda in 1806 he exhibited in the Hague and Amsterdam 1827-67, at the Royal Academy 1855-56 and at the highly prestigious Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 1857. His work was much sought after in England, the Netherlands and can be seen in numerous public collections in both countries. The qualities for which his work was so sought after are exemplified in this composition, his highly finished technique and the dexterity with which he handles light and shade. We see the delicate flesh tones of the young woman lit by the candle flame contrasting with those of the young stallholder in the shadows. We see the delicate folds of her dress, the reflections on her mother of pearl buttons, the silk folds at her wrist and the soft supple quality of her bag. Beyond Schendel explores the play of light on the various surfaces, the shadows from the diffuse light of the streetlamp and the candlelight shielded by the group of figures. This is a sublime painting in which the artist displays his characteristic exquisite quality of detail and exemplary use of light.

28.

PETRUS VAN SCHENDEL, Vegetable and fish night market in The Hague A master of nocturnal scenes van Schendel’s work owes much to the Seventeenth century tradition of Dutch candlelit paintings exemplified in the work of Gotfried Schalken (1643–1706). Schendel was unsurpassed in his chosen genre, he explored, as here the quality and effects of differing light sources, the warmth of a candle flame and the diffuse light seen in a distant window. We see the cool moonlight bathing the surface of the buildings, and the glistening reflections as it catches the gleaming fish on the market stall, in contrast the soft warmth of the candle flame illuminates the figures and flesh tones in the foreground while creating deep shadows and silhouetting dimly seen figures beyond. Schendels highly finished technique and extraordinary handling of light and shade is seen to good effect in his portrayal of the figures, their expressive faces and gestures, the very flesh tones and in the delicate folds of the fabrics. He captures the stolid prosperity of the potential buyer and the gentle beseeching gaze of the stallholder; we see the quality of the fish, fresh and gleaming and the perfectly formed vegetables. This is a consummate work by the artist which embodies those qualities for which Schendel was both renowned and unsurpassed.

29.

WILLEM KOEKKOEK, Amsterdam The present painting depicts a view in Amsterdam, the city in which Willem Koekkoek was born in 1839 and where he lived for much of his life. He was the son of Hermanus Koekkoek, a marine painter (see no.33), and the family name was synonymous with Nineteenth century Dutch painting. Willem embarked on a career as a painter of town scenes, a subject in which he was to have few rivals, and perhaps just one in Cornelis Springer (1817-91). Koekkoek was a consummate painter of town scenes whether it be a major thoroughfare, or, as here, a quiet street where he captures a scene of everyday life. He excelled in depicting the minutiae in exquisite detail, the weathered red brickwork, the reflections in the glass windowpanes, the angled open shutter, the shadow of which lends a sense of depth. He captures the light striking the whitewashed wall and the picket fence, and the sunlight on the distant street, a tribute to his compositional skills. His strength as a figure painter are shown to good effect; the boy seen labouring under the weight of his loaded basket, while the interaction between the three figures conversing is convincing in every aspect.

This is a painting that fully demonstrates Willem Koekkoek’s acknowledged mastery of the genre.

30.

CHARLES HENRI JOSEPH LEICKERT, The Scheldt at sunset Charles Leickert was born in Brussels 1816 but spent most of his life working in the Netherlands, studying in the Hague and with Andreas Schelfhout, doyen of the Dutch Romantic movement. Leickert moved to Amsterdam 1849 and in 1861 was elected to The Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, two years after the present painting was executed and at a time when the artist was at the height of his considerable powers. Leickert was a painter of landscapes and an upholder of Romanticism, a movement that swept across Europe in the Nineteenth Century, in the Netherlands coalescing in the representation of bucolic landscapes in winter and summer, of which this is a near perfect example. He has portrayed the end of the day, figures returning home along the banks of the estuary, fishermen at their moorings and the sun setting behind a bank of rose-tinted clouds. Leickert was unparalleled in painting a summer sky at sunset, with the sea and sky seamlessly merging, reflections in the still waters, this is an exemplar of Romanticism.

31. WOUTERUS VERSCHUUR, Travellers resting by a Well This magnificent painting is the work of perhaps the finest Nineteenth century Netherlandish artist of equestrian subjects.

Wouterus Verschuur was born in 1812 and studied with Pieter van Os (1776–1839) who had him copy equestrian works by the Seventeenth Century artist Philip Wouwerman, the latter was to have a profound influence throughout his career. Verschuur was an enormously successful artist; his paintings of equine subjects in a style of Romanticism conjoined with Naturalism were of widespread appeal, as seen here, in his portrayal of the powerful musculature of the horses, the sheen of their coats and the

solicitude of the horseman, the subject set against an extensive mountainous landscape. Verschuur had excelled early in his career being awarded the Felix Meritis Society prize, an award to promote the Arts; he was elected to the Amsterdam Academy in 1833 and to the Arti et Amicitiae in 1839 and exhibited throughout the Netherlands and beyond. His success allowed him to travel extensively in the Netherlands and to Germany and Switzerland, the latter country possibly being the setting for the present work.

32.

JOHANN KLOMBECK & EUGÈNE VERBOECKHOVEN, A Winter Landscape Johann Klombeck was born in Germany in 1815, growing up in Kleve, the son of a tailor, his mother was the half-sister to the painter Matthuis Tintoff (1794–1881). It was the latter under whom Klombeck studied, until in 1841 Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, having moved to Kleve in 1834, opened an academy in which he enrolled and was to become one of the foremost Dutch Romantic artists and one of Koekkoek’s principal followers. Like his master he specialised in landscape painting, open expansive works in summer and winter. He exhibited widely, in nearby Nijmegen in 1841, and in the following years Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Brussels, in Dresden and Berlin. His work is characterised by the subject matter and his facility in painting trees akin to that of B.C. Koekkoek, as can be seen in the present painting. Klombeck collaborated in this composition with Eugène Verboeckhoven (1799–1881), one of the foremost painters of animals in the Nineteenth Century, painting the landscape and the latter the animals and staffage. His debt to B.C. Koekkoek is evident here in his painting of the magnificent oaks dominating the foreground, in the delicate tracery of branches silhouetted against the snow-filled sky. Shafts of sunlight gleam on the snow, the ice is exquisitely painted, scored by sleds, shards of ice glistening and the frozen stream with a leaden hue. The stream itself, acts as a thoroughfare, easier for travelling than a frozen rutted track, and it leads the eye to a distant castle. The figures and sheep, and their fodder, are beautifully drawn by Verboeckhoven, the horse patiently waiting, a dog assisting with the sheep being loaded on to sleds for transport before the oncoming snow. This is a consummate scene of rural life in winter by two of the finest artists in their chosen genre.

33.

HERMANUS KOEKKOEK SNR, On the Zuider Zee Renowned as a marine painter, Hermanus Koekkoek excelled at portraying everyday life on the rivers and canals of the Ijsselmeer.

A sense of calm pervades, a boat beached by the bow at low tide, figures unload while the sail hangs drying in the faintest of breezes. Vessels under full sail barely move over the still calm waters, a windmill, its sails unmoving, breaks the line of the horizon. Close to, we see the artists skill in capturing the pose and interaction between figures, those on the beached boat lifting and carrying, we see the weight of their burden, and in those on the shore. Here, the man leans under his burden, we see the angle of his arm, the slope of his shoulder and again the interaction with those with whom he is conversing. It is a tribute to the artist’s observation and technique in rendering detail that conveys a sense of reality, the light on the rudder, the sheets hanging loose from the yardarm, the reeds in the water and in the costume of the figures, with no sense of the picturesque.

In the companion piece we see the beautifully drawn and acutely observed fishermen and sailors at work, unloading a sailing vessel beached in the shallows but within the context of a wider composition. The artist has perfectly depicted the choppy waters of the shallows and conveyed the sense of distance where sea and sky meet, the horizon broken by the tall masts of a distant vessel. Koekkoek perfectly captures the effort and labour of the working figures; we can see the effort of the sailor rolling the heavy barrel of fish up the path, another with a pack on his back and those in the boat wrestling with the cargo. He depicts the house with shutters open, washing hanging a fleck of white, offshore the breeze causes a barge under full sail to heel, spray rising from its bows all under clouds scudding before the wind.

34.

FREDRIK MARINUS KRUSEMAN, A Dutch winter landscape A pupil of Barend Cornelis Koekkoek and one of the leading figures in the Dutch Romantic Movement, Kruseman is seen at the peak of his considerable powers in this magnificent composition. Painted at the very zenith of the Dutch Romantic Movement, Kruseman exhibits his extraordinary capacity to evoke the very essence of a winter landscape. The painting epitomises a movement in which the harsh realities of rural life in winter are veiled in a warm and picturesque mood. The artist has created a perfectly balanced composition, a chateau, surrounded by leafless trees, silhouetted against a lowering sky, presaging further snow. In a frequently used stage-like setting, pine trees anchoring the foreground balanced by a distant vista and a faraway copse to the left, the artist conveys a sense of wide-open space. In the foreground we see Kruseman’s masterful depiction of ice and snow and his exquisite skill in portraying the dull sheen of the ice and the quality of the snow, warmed and thawed in the shafts of sunlight, cold and frozen in the shade of the trees. He creates a sense of movement in the figures skating and perfectly captures the interaction between the rider with his dog and the woodsman as they exchange a greeting in passing. The figures on the frozen river beyond and the distant town, silhouetted against the sun setting behind the pink-hued clouds, lend a sense of purpose and activity to a composition that must rank as one of the artist’s finest works.

35. EVERARDUS MIRANI, A Winter Landscape Everardus Mirani was born in Amsterdam 1810 to a Dutch mother and an Italian father. He was born into a Golden age of Dutch painting, studying under Andreas Schelfhout, and worked during the height of Dutch Romanticism, a wonderful example of which we see here. Mirani had a long and successful career exhibiting at the Hague and Amsterdam, and throughout the Netherlands 1840 -1880, and being elected to the prestigious Arti et Amicitae, a society to promote the arts, in Amsterdam. Mirani was an admirer of B.C. Koekoek, which can be seen here in the artist’s depiction of the gnarled oaks, in his rendering of the bark and lichen and the delicate tracery of branches silhouetted against the sky. He creates a convincing sense of depth through the highly detailed foreground, the reeds, grasses and brushwood, and receding to the figures collecting firewood and the distant avenues through the forest. Mirani’s painting of the ice is exquisite, the fragments left from cutting blocks of ice, glistening in the shafts of sunlight, the sled tracks, and the dull sheen of the thick ice itself. This is a wonderfully accomplished Romantic winter landscape.

36. ABRAHAM HULK SNR, A breezy day on the Scheldt & Sunset on the Scheldt Abraham Hulk, imbued in the tradition of a marine painter, would frequently paint contrasting pairs. As in this case, Sunset on the Scheldt captures the stillness and serenity of a warm summer evening at dusk, shipping in the estuary lies becalmed, sails hanging in the still air. Hulk was adept at depicting a sky at sunset, the light reflecting from the clouds, the glow of the setting sun glimpsed through the haze and gleaming in the still waters. In contrast, the companion piece shows Hulk painting vessels off a lee shore in a stiff breeze, a fishing boat setting sail, watched anxiously from the shoreline, the white flecked crests of the choppy water in the shallows. Further out a vessel heels in a gust of wind, a fleck of white marking her wake, while above a passing squall moves across the sky. These works emulate perfectly Seventeenth Century Dutch marine paintings with which Hulk would have been so familiar 37. GEORGE HYDE POWNALL, The London Royal Exchange by night George Hyde Pownall was renowned for his iconic London, and latterly Melbourne views, The Houses of Parliament, Hyde Park Corner, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and, as here, The Royal Exchange. Influenced by the nocturnal works of Whistler and Grimshaw he would frequently portray London life by night, the comings and goings of hansom cabs, high society visiting theatres and restaurants under the glittering light of street lamps and reflections on the wet streets. Here he shows the Royal Exchange and the throngs of city workers and cabs with the myriad lights and the last vestiges of the setting sun reflecting on the portico of the Exchange.

Born in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire in 1866 the son of a gardener and journalist, Pownall was apprenticed to a fine art dealer in 1878, moving to Torrington Square in Bloomsbury in 1891 and marrying in 1894. He studied at the Royal College of Music becoming a widely known tenor, a chorister at Westminster Cathedral and a pianist with a vaudeville orchestra, at the same time continuing to paint landscapes and London views, which he exhibited in Leeds, Liverpool and Nottingham. Having toured with the actor Sir Herbert Tree, it was the theatre that took Hyde Pownall to Australia where he settled in Sydney, moving to Melbourne in 1914, where he continued to paint and was joined by his family. His views of Bourke Street East and Collins Street can be seen in The Cowan Gallery at the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

38. EDWARD LADELL, Still life of flowers, fruit and a bird’s nest Still lifes by Edward Ladell are immediately identifiable by their remarkable quality of detail, seen at his finest in this pair of works.

In Still life of flowers, fruit and a bird’s nest Ladell has assembled a combination of elements that also allow him to display his extraordinary skill virtuosity and finesse. The still life includes greengages, a silver tazza, pomegranate, flowers and a bird’s nest in addition to the more customary elements, all set before dark drapery to emphasise the silver, a marble pilaster and, unusually, an extensive landscape. The richness of colour seen in the flowers and pomegranate together with the landscape vista lend an expansive air to the composition. The bloom on the grapes and plum, a hallmark of the artist, is almost tactile, the detail in the silver exquisite and the depiction of the bird’s nest exemplary. The light source from the upper left throws the carving on the oak ledge into stark relief, illuminating the polished carved elements and the even grain of the oak. The various elements seen here allow Ladell to display the facility with which he can convey such a variety of forms and textures within a cohesive composition.

In the companion piece, Still life of fruit with a goblet of wine, Ladell has set the entire composition against a dark background, illuminated by a shaft of sunlight in the artist’s studio. He paints the fruit with a facility which conveys form and texture, the hard, wizened shell of the walnut, the soft roundness of the peach and the smudged bloom on the grapes, resting on a carved ebony and gilt casket. The whole sits on Ladell’s customary carved wooden ledge, the grain of the wood seen in sharp detail.

Ladell’s finest works often include a wine glass allowing him to show his virtuosity in the painting of the glass, the rim implied through a delicate trace of white, and remarkably in the bowl of the glass we see reflections of the view through the artist’s studio

window, a view of mid nineteenth century Colchester. This is a still life with all the characteristic elements that exemplify the artist’s finest work.

39. JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW, Scarborough from the seats near The Grand Hotel Grimshaw travelled widely, from Glasgow to London, in search of patrons and subject matter, but it was Leeds and the east coast of Yorkshire and its environs that lay closest to his heart. He had a particular affinity for Scarborough, from 1876–1881 renting a house in Mulgrave Place which he referred to as ‘Castle by the Sea’. To the south of Mulgrave Place lay the magnificent Grand Hotel, overlooking South Bay. Opened in 1867 it was the largest hotel in Europe, and the largest brick-built structure. Scarborough was originally a Roman town and Port with, later a medieval castle and by the Seventeenth Century had become a Spa town and the earliest seaside resort. With the coming of the Railways in 1845 it developed further as a seaside resort for factory and mill employees from the mill towns of west Yorkshire and beyond. The Grand Hotel with its 365 rooms was built to cater for the wealthy visitors to the resort. In this composition Grimshaw portrays South Bay by moonlight, the reflections shimmering on the calm sea, while the illuminations from the Ballroom of The Grand Hotel reveal visitors on the terrace overlooking the sea. This is a work in which Grimshaw’s use of viridian green is evident, a pigment that allowed the artist to achieve the luminescence for which he became renowned. This pigment although created in 1836 had become more widely available from 1859 and was much used by Claude Monet. Grimshaw puts it to good use in this magnificent composition with the harbour lights twinkling far below, a fishing smack, late home, illuminated by the moon and the ethereal figures leaning on the railings overlooking the scene.

In scale, subject and composition, it stands as one of the artist’s finest works.

40. JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW, Greenock Harbour Greenock is a port on the Clyde west of Glasgow and was an important centre for industry, the first scheduled steamship service linked the two as early as 1812. Although Grimshaw had painted dock scenes in the 1870’s, it was in the following decade that he embarked on a series of city docks seen by moonlight that were to become synonymous with the artist. The wealth of the nation flowed through ports such as London, Liverpool, Hull, Glasgow and Greenock, as did that of many of Grimshaw’s patrons. He was unique in his depictions of these subjects, the lights glowing from the shop and tavern windows, reflecting on the towering warehouses, the sheen in the rain-soaked streets and the figures, shadows in the vague illumination of streetlamps, and the myriad of masts silhouetted in the gloaming. These paintings of commerce and social commentary, painted in the artist’s unique style were of widespread interest in Grimshaw’s lifetime and remain so today.

41. HAROLD HARVEY, The Gate, Spring Harold Harvey lived virtually his whole life in Cornwall and had a natural affinity for the coast and countryside of his home county. With the end of the First World War in 1918 artists were once again able to paint the landscape and coastline of England, having been restricted from doing so during the war for fear of providing identifiable landmarks to the enemy. Having painted many interiors during the War years, in the present work Harvey returns to painting the extensive landscape of Cornwall.

Children feature in many of the artist’s works and in this composition of 1919 painted immediately following the end of the war the children portrayed provide hope for a better future together with a sense of innocence in view of the loss suffered over the past years. The two boys playing pipes are lost in concentration, oblivious to their onlooking sister, yet there is a sense of relaxation and empathy between them as they pass the time under the midday sun. An artfully constructed composition, Harvey uses a gate as a means of connecting a narrative in several his works. The children, beautifully observed, the posture of the girl seated by a ruined wall, a traditional cob-built wall, the boys linked by the gate itself, one beautifully balanced, the other concentrating intently and beyond the landscape. This extensive landscape serves as a glorious backdrop to a gentle genre subject. In this, undoubtedly one of his finest works, Harvey has evoked a sense of hope in a subject of youth and innocence.

42. CHARLES ERNEST CUNDALL, New York Harbour, circa 1939 Charles Cundall was a highly successful and well-travelled artist, who was appointed an official war artist in 1940, attached to the Admiralty, given his expertise in Marine subjects, as seen here. Born in Manchester in 1890, he studied at the Royal College of Art before serving in the Great War, following which he continued his studies there and at the Slade. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1918 and was elected a member of the New English Art Club in 1924. He travelled extensively in Europe, and North America in 1939, painting in Quebec and New York; our painting of New York dates from this visit, as do views of Quebec and New York, in respectively the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, and Government Art Collection. Cundall was an accomplished painter working in a distinctly modernist style, seen here in his rendering of the skyscrapers of Manhattan. He has painted the city and its bustling jetties and harbour from a high viewpoint, above the Navy Yards and Brooklyn Bridge, a viewpoint seen in his works from the 1920’s, and reminiscent of the works of his contemporary C.R.W. Nevinson. Cundall

42. CHARLES ERNEST CUNDALL, New York Harbour, circa 1939 (continued) portrays not just the jagged outline of downtown modern Manhattan but the older historic buildings along the waterfront; the volume of shipping and the skyline emphasise the commercial and industrial might of the US, and of course with the emblematic Statue of Liberty silhouetted against the silver sea and sky.

43. SIR ALFRED J. MUNNINGS, Going out at Epsom Munnings has captured all the atmosphere and excitement of a race day at Epsom, the crowds, top hats and flat caps, and the glossy, highly-strung racehorses, coiled musculature perfectly depicted by the finest equine painter since George Stubbs.

Painted in June 1929, this is an earlier version of the painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1931. Munnings wrote ‘Three gathered along the rails of my Epsom pictures were shown at the Royal Academy in 1931: ‘The Saddling Paddock’, ‘Going Out’ and ‘Unsaddling’. For these pictures I used my own horses. The stud was growing too large perhaps among them was a new addition, Chips, no artist could want a better model than Chip’. (A. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay 1951 p. 296). Chips was one of Munnings’s favourite horses, trained at Chantilly by Frank Carter.

44. SIR ALFRED J. MUNNINGS, Willows on the Stour Munnings was a great English landscape painter in the tradition of Constable, an artist with whom he had much in common.

They shared a love of the Stour valley and its landscape, and in the case of Munnings portrayed the unspoilt country as a rebuttal of the modern industrialised world beyond its borders. Munnings had been brought up at Mendham on the river Waveney in Norfolk. He moved to Castle House Dedham in 1919 close to the river Stour which he described as ‘a perfect river… in unspoilt country’. The Stour had been a thoroughfare for barges going to and fro from the farmlands of Suffolk to the coast at Harwich, and the present painting is reminiscent of the Monetesque ‘Barge on the Stour at Dedham’ in the Munnings Art Museum Dedham.

For the artist the Stour was a source of peace and tranquillity, it was to the riverbank that he yearned to return after travelling for commissions across the country, and it was to provide a wealth of material as he revisited the subject over his lifetime. In this composition, pollard willows surmount the riverbank while beyond we see the even pasture. Short and stippled brushstrokes pick out reflections of the sky in the gently flowing river; waterlilies, reeds and waterweed are implied by dashes of impasto.

There is an overriding impression of tranquillity and calm; it is a work by an artist totally at ease with his subject.

45. DUNCAN GRANT, Still life with fruit and a jug Duncan Grant was considered one of the most significant artists of his generation, and a crucial figure in the Bloomsbury Group.

Grant’s early years were spent in India, and he was sent back to England at the age of eight for his education, following which his cousin, Dorothy Strachy, and her husband the artist Simon Bussy encouraged him in his desire to paint. He enrolled at the Westminster School of Art, and then stayed in Paris studying under Jacques Emile Blanche and meeting both Picasso and Matisse, on his return studying at the Slade. Grant became a member of the Camden Town Group, London Group and exhibited at the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912, having been a great admirer of Paul Cézanne who exhibited at the First exhibition the previous year, an admiration, the results of which are apparent in our painting. In 1916, a conscientious objector, he moved to Charleston with the married Vanessa Bell, and following the war remained a hugely significant painter, exhibiting at the Venice Biennale in 1926 and 1932. It was in these years that Dorothy and Simon Bussy would welcome them to ‘La Souco’ their house on Cap Martin near Menton, and a haven for artist and writers, from Rudyard Kipling to Andre Gide and Henri Matisse; our painting is likely to have been painted here. Grant and Bell returned in 1960, their last visit, Dorothy was at home in England and Simon Bussy had died in 1954, the house was in a state of disrepair, but the décor remained the same, including the distinctive yellow wall seen in our painting; they spent some months painting here. Seen from above we look down at the fruit artfully arranged around a pottery jug and set against a decorative panel reminiscent of the Omega Workshop. The light is from above and left, the impasto serving to create the reflections on the pears and jug, the colours intense and vibrant, Grant’s lifelong admiration of Cezanne is very evident here but in a somewhat anglicised fashion.

46. CHARLES GINNER, Bishop’s Cleeve from Cleeve Hill Born in France, Ginner studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and subsequently at the Académie Vitti under the Spanish artist Herman Anglada-Camarosa, which led to him travelling to and exhibiting in Buenos Aires in 1909. He returned to London, where he had worked the previous year, and, with his background, was of considerable interest to friends and fellow artists, resulting in him becoming a founder member of the Camden Town Group, one of the most significant movements in Twentieth century British art. Following the war, in which he served latterly as an official war artist, Ginner continued to paint in his unique and remarkably consistent style, whether it be a town scene or landscape, as seen here. Bishop’s Cleeve, a village south of Tewksbury, so named for a Ninth century monastery given to the Bishop of Worcester, sits at the foot of Cleeve Hill, the highest

point in the Cotswolds. Ginner painted here in 1950 possibly on the same trip that produced ‘Malvern Hills’, the other side of Tewksbury, now in the Worcester City Museum. The present painting is a fine and characteristic work, the buildings distinctively outlined, the trees and landscape rendered with thickly laden brushstrokes producing a richly textured surface.

47. DAME ELISABETH FRINK, Small sitting down horse The daughter of a cavalry officer and jockey, Frink had a lifelong interest in horses, both as a horsewoman and as subject matter.

She lived in the Camargue in France 1967-70, an area famed for its wild horses and on her return to England embarked on a series of works relating to horses in a variety of medium, lithographs, etchings, drawings and bronzes. One of these works was ‘small sitting down horse’, conceived in 1972 and cast in an edition of twelve with an artist’s cast, seen here. The bronze is a tribute to her knowledge of horses, to her acute observation, and her qualities as a sculptor. Cast in plaster and then reworked and cast, the surface has Frink’s characteristic tactile surface with a rich, brown patina.

48. DAME ELISABETH FRINK, Small dog Elisabeth Frink was brought up in Suffolk with a love of horses, dogs and birds, subjects which were to feature significantly throughout her career. Sculptures of men also featured, rather than women, because of the ‘subtle combination of sensuality and strength with vulnerability’ that men displayed. One of the foremost post-war British Sculptors, Frink received important public and private commissions, embarking on a series of large male busts while living in France in the 1960’s, and upon returning to England a series of life size bronzes such as ‘Running Man’ of 1976. Frink also produced a series of bronzes of animals and birds, all of which have clearly defined characteristics, none more so than in her portraits of dogs, as seen here, conceived and cast in 1986. In part this was a result of her method of working, casting in plaster and then reworking to produce a rough-hewn finish, and also through her acute observation and affinity with her subject, and seen here it is an extraordinarily effective technique as she conveys the poise, stance and character of the dog 49. L.S. LOWRY, The Canal at Worsley The birth of the Industrial Revolution was rooted in the network of canals across the country, and it is therefore appropriate and unsurprising that they should feature in Lowry’s paintings documenting Industrial decline. Our painting can be compared with ‘Barges on a canal’ of 1941 in the Aberdeen Art Gallery, while canals also feature in ‘Industrial landscape, The Canal’ of 1945 in the Leeds City Art Gallery, and in ‘Canals and Factories’ of 1955 in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. In this present powerful work the barges are outlined in black, emphasising their presence and purpose. Masts and derricks are silhouetted against a leaden sky, while bold reds are reflected in the still waters. Beyond the brick-built warehouse we see the veiled outline of a town depicted and defined with the use of the butt end of the artist’s brush; a church spire, emphasised in pencil, breaks the horizon line. In contrast to the Aberdeen painting, there is here, despite the presence of the town, a deep sense of solitude in what is an intense and bold composition.

50. L.S. LOWRY, Three Figures Heavily layered, textured, lead-white was the ground on which Lowry frequently based his works. In this instance Three Figures, painted from the memory of an observation, in the calm of his studio at night, shows a husband intent and hurrying, wife caught by the attention of the artist and the daughter accompanying her parents, unified in parallel step, but separate, distracted and detached. The paint surface is sculpted around the figures, the faces created with a thumb print, and the long flowing brushstrokes forming the clothing convey a sense of movement in the hurried steps. Lowry was an astonishing observer of snatched moments, conveying so much with sparse brushwork and the use of a knife and thumb, and in tones made up of vermillion, yellow ochre, Prussian blue, black and his lead white.

51. L.S. LOWRY, The Playground Painted in 1945 there is an air of ‘joie de vivre’ about The Playground, suggesting that it was painted following the end of the war. Lowry painted a number of cheerful paintings in the 1940’s, seaside subjects, parks and playgrounds with a brighter palette and an uplifting atmosphere, in marked contrast to his works of the previous two decades. His painting of the same title painted in 1935, is dour in colour tone and atmosphere, in relation to the present work of ten years later. Here Lowry shows the children playing, interacting, involved with their surroundings and conscious of others, a child turns and stares at an adult onlooker, owner of a dog which has squeezed through the park railings into the playground, to the owner’s consternation. The children are colourfully dressed, climbing the slide and gathered in groups and Lowry’s vermillion, Prussian blue and yellow ochre appear vibrant against the aged lead-white ground. The paint is applied in thick layers, with brush, sponge and thumb, a favoured ‘tool’ of Lowry’s and smeared, scraped and sculpted; on occasion he will cut the paint with a knife leaving a sharp

51. L.S. LOWRY, The Playground (continued) edge which will refract the light and create a distinctive shimmering effect. This is an expansive composition; in the distance we see vestiges of the industrial past, distant chimneys hinted at in shades of white, which lead the viewer through the playground itself and down the broad walk to the open parkland, the church and rectory to the factories beyond.

52. EDWARD BRIAN SEAGO, The Orwell at Pin Mill, Suffolk Pin Mill was one of the most favoured subjects for Seago, and one with which he was most familiar. A small hamlet on the South bank of the Orwell, famed for the ancient tavern the Butt and Oyster, it was a popular mooring over the years, described by the artist and author Arthur Ransome as ‘a charming anchorage’. Seago sailed the Orwell in his yacht the Capricorn and his familiarity with the river is evident in this composition. Painted at high tide we see the slack water in the shelter of the headland while the water in the main channel ripples with the wind and tide; a fishing smack lies at anchor and in the distance a steamer on its way from the port of Ipswich, smoke unfurling above the horizon, yachts, white sails gleaming in the sunlight tack to and fro across the channel. Seago, like Eugene Boudin, was famed for his skies and this work exemplifies his prowess, a characteristic East Anglian sky unbroken from horizon to horizon with clouds swept across the summer firmament.

53. EDWARD BRIAN SEAGO, Street in Hong Kong Seago had been invited to Hong Kong in 1962 by John Swire, of the eponymous shipping group. Already a collector of Seago’s work he commissioned the artist to produce a series of paintings of Hong Kong, the city and coastline for a new boardroom.

Seago spent some six weeks there and in addition to the commission produced several works on his own account, this scene being an example. He was a well-connected artist, a friend of members of the Royal Family, he painted the Queen and the Queen Mother and accompanied the Duke of Edinburgh to Antarctica and South Georgia, where they painted together. He was a highly accomplished painter, as at home painting on the Orwell, in Honfleur, South Georgia, portraits at Windsor Castle or, as here, in Hong Kong. He truly captures the heat of the city, the bustle of the markets, the proximity in which people live and work, seen in the washing drying in the heat and the quality of light unique to the city. With the vibrancy of the colours and his dexterity in conveying the light and heat the painting epitomises Hong Kong.

54. HENRY SCOTT TUKE, The Bather Born in 1858 Tuke was brought up in Falmouth, a port on the south coast of Cornwall renowned for its mild climate. Encouraged in the arts, he enrolled at the Slade in 1874 followed by a period travelling and studying in Paris, before moving to Newlyn in Cornwall, home to a colony of artists and friends of Tuke’s. It was in Newlyn that he first painted youths swimming, a subject for which he was to become renowned in his lifetime, while also being a prolific Portrait painter and Marine artist, a founder member of the New English Arts Club in 1886 and a Royal Academician in 1914. In 1885 he returned to Falmouth establishing a studio in an old brigantine. The majority of his bathing subjects were painted ‘en plein air’, the influence of his period in France and his friendship with John Singer Sargent, also a painter of male nudes. The present work is a sublime example of Tuke’s naturalistic style, his use of fresh and vibrant colour, his delicacy in capturing the sunlight playing on the youth’s torso and the rendition of sea and sky with the reflections on the waters of the quiet cove.

55. WALTER RICHARD SICKERT, Barnet Fair Since 1588 a fair has been held annually in Barnet, originally as a livestock and horse market. By the Twentieth century it was largely for entertainment, although in this work the horses resting under the trees may be a reference to its past. In the present painting the focal point is the Children’s Theatre, in all its gaudy glory; the crowds entering in the distance suggest the fair has only just opened evoking a sense of excitement over what is to come. Sickert painted the fair on a number of occasions, this in 1928-30 and another version (Gallery Oldham) in 1930. Sickert was one of the most significant British painters of the Twentieth century. After studying at the Slade, he went to Paris in 1883, befriending Degas who was to prove a lifelong influence. In 1911 he cofounded the Camden Town Group, one of the most influential movements in British art and was to prove a mentor to many artists including Sir Winston Churchill and those of the following generations.

56. VANESSA BELL, The Harbour, Newhaven Although she travelled extensively many of Vanessa Bell’s paintings feature subjects in the close vicinity of her beloved Charleston.

Newhaven Harbour, seen here is a subject she returned to, in 1936 painting ‘Newhaven Harbour’, another version, now in the collection of the National Trust at Monk’s House, home to Bell’s sister, Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard. Bell also painted ‘The Tug Newhaven’ in 1936 and later ‘Newhaven Lighthouse’ now in the collection at Charleston. Bell was a great artist in her own right, and a hugely significant and influential woman artist, quite apart from being the sister of Virginia Woolf and the lover of Roger Fry and Duncan Grant. A radical, innovative artist in her youth, this harbour scene, painted with bold, vibrant colours

and long, even brushstrokes reflect her continuing interest in the work of Henri Matisse, and the use of colour and form create a remarkably intense and cohesive composition. This is a far cry from the painting of a Royal Academy student of whom John Singer Sargent, in critiquing her work described it as ‘too grey’.

57. IVOR ROBERTS-JONES, Sir Winston Churchill The magisterial sculpture of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is an iconic work by Ivor Robert Jones. Trained as a sculptor at Goldsmiths, following wartime service in the Royal artillery he returned to Goldsmiths to teach. He received numerous public and private commissions and in 1971, following a competition, he was awarded the commission for a full length bronze of Sir Winston Churchill for the position in Parliament Square that Sir Winston had coveted. Subsequently, in 1976, Roberts Jones, with the ‘Library of Imperial History’ who had published ‘Churchill’s Collected Works’ commissioned an edition of 500, the first 100 of which the sculptor would retain to sell, the remainder to be offered to the subscribers of the collected works. The Meridian Foundry in Greenwich, under the founder John Crofton cast these from the original Maquette, although it is unknown if the edition was completed; the Portland stone base was based on the original plinth. Sensitively cast and finished with a rough-hewn texture and rich brown patina, it is undoubtedly a highly successful representation of Churchill, wearing his hallmark greatcoat, seen at the zenith of his extraordinary career 58. DAVID JAMES, Surf David James was unsurpassed in his portrayal of the sea. Many artists have strived to convey the awesome power and immensity of the oceans, but few have succeeded like James. The contrast of the foaming breakers, crests translucent in the sunlight with the azure blue of the ocean beyond conveys the sense of a limitless, unending expanse of ocean. James was unrivalled in his depiction of the breaking roller, the spume whipped from the billowing crests as the wave crashes into the rolling seething surf. With no hint of human habitation, no vessel nor land, cliff or foreshore we are left to contemplate and admire the awesome unceasing movement and the immensity of the sea itself.

59. EFFIE SPRING-SMITH, On the Baize Born in Suffolk in 1907, Effie Spring Smith studied at Ipswich School of Art and subsequently at the Slade under Henry Tonks.

Tonks was a forbidding, formidable and yet highly influential teacher who cowed many, but taught some of the most significant twentieth century British artists. Spring Smith, a figurative landscape and portrait painter, was at the height of powers in the 1930’s; Joyce Gardner was Women’s professional Billiard Champion, 1930–33, and 1935-38. In 1936 Spring Smith exhibited at the Paris Salon, at the Royal Academy 1931–1949, and exhibited at the Society of Women Artists 1930 -1940, becoming a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1940; one of her most admired works, a striking Self Portrait, is now in the Ipswich council collection.

This portrait of Joyce Gardner reflects her ability to capture a likeness and character, there is a steely air of concentration in her visage, and the artist has acutely observed the stance and poise of a billiard player. The setting reflects the player’s concentration; a billiard table with overhanging light in a room bare of any accoutrements, the player and the baize are all.

60. SIR WILLIAM RUSSELL FLINT, Variations VI In 1960 Flint embarked on a new ambitious series of works based on ‘Variations’, studies of his favourite models in a variety of poses and dress. Variations VI, exhibited at the R.W.S. in 1963, was executed the year following his exhibition at the Royal Academy of 1962, a distinction awarded to only six Academicians at the time. Cecilia was undoubtedly Flint’s favourite model to visit him at his Campden Hill studio, and he portrays her here in a variety of poses and costumes. To the left she stands reading a magazine, attired in a white top and brown skirt, her elegant stance emphasising her credentials as a ballet dancer. In the foreground she sits provocatively dressed in three poses in an off the shoulder gown. Carefully composed, the viewer is taken from the standing figure, through to the highlights of the blue dress, and to the dexterity with which he uses the ground to highlight the white dress, to the reclining figure, and thence to the three poses, where Flint again uses the ground as a highlight in addition to traces of white pastel. In terms of subject and sophisticated compositional format this is an extraordinarily accomplished work.

61. SIR WILLIAM RUSSELL FLINT, The Twisted Chain, Cecilia Cecilia Green, a ballet dancer served as Flint’s favourite model friend and confidante for some fifteen years in the 1950’s and 1960’s. She appears here dressed in white with a delicate, silver necklace, an air of intense concentration as she carefully untangles the delicate links. It is a wonderful tonal work in which Flint demonstrates his unrivalled handling of the medium, painting ‘wet on wet’ with an astonishing control and dexterity. The flesh tones contrast beautifully with the background wash, and with the almost shimmering dress, while with extraordinarily subtle gradations of tone he conveys the impression of the sensuous female form clothed by the sumptuous gown. This is a composition with the artist’s favourite model in which he amply demonstrates his mastery of the medium and a complete understanding of the female form.

FAIRS AND EXHIBITIONS

January The Winter Show New York

March The European Fine Art Fair Maastricht

June/July Masterpiece London

September LAPADA London

For further details on the paintings, and information on the fairs and exhibitions, please visit: www.macconnal-mason.com