CHRIS BEETLES SUMMER SHOW 2013 by Chris Beetles

Chris Beetles Summer Show 2013

C H RIS B EE T LE S G A L L E RY

Copyright © Chris Beetles Ltd 2013 8 & 10 Ryder Street St James’s London SW1Y 6QB 020 7839 7551 gallery@chrisbeetles.com www.chrisbeetles.com IBSN 978-1-905738-59-5 Catalogue in publication data is available from the British Library

Written and researched by David Wootton, with a contribution from John Russell Taylor Edited by Catherine Andrews and David Wootton Design by Jeremy Brook of Graphic Ideas Photography by Julian Huxley-Parlour Reproduction by www.cast2create.com Colour separation and printing by Geoff Neal Litho Limited Cover: Albert Goodwin, A City Sunset with Saint Paul’s across the River [37] Frontispiece: Keith Grant, Metamorphoses [76] Front endpaper: George Weatherill, Whitby from Larpool [10] Back endpaper: Atkinson Grimshaw, Shipping on the Clyde [32]

DAVI D RO B E RT S David Roberts, RA

HRSA SBA

(1796-1864)

A popular, generous and industrious man, David Roberts rose from poverty in Scotland to become one of Britain’s most prolific and admired artists. On his death in 1864, an obituarist in The Times described him as ‘certainly the best architectural painter that our country has yet produced’. Pioneering and wideranging, he was one of the first professional practitioners to experience the Orient at first hand, and the highly dramatic paintings that resulted became a significant source on the region, especially as disseminated through publications. David Roberts was born in Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, on 24 October 1796, the eldest child of a shoemaker and a laundress. Even before his rudimentary schooling, he had exhibited a love of images and a talent for drawing. As a result, he was apprenticed from the age of ten to Gavin Beugo, an Edinburgh house-painter. During the next seven years, he developed many skills and, on the completion of his apprenticeship, assisted on the decoration of Scone Palace, Perthshire. Following his return to Edinburgh, he met James Bannister and, in 1816, joined his new touring ‘company of pantomimists’, mainly though not exclusively as a scenepainter. During the following year, the company travelled to Carlisle, Newcastle, Hull and York, an experience that enabled him to make drawings of landscape and architecture. Once back in Scotland, he returned mainly to house-painting, until the opportunity arose to paint scenery at The Pantheon, Edinburgh (1818-19), the Theatre Royal, Glasgow (1819-20), and the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh. In Glasgow he married, while then at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, he met and befriended the marine painter, Clarkson Stanfield, who encouraged him to exhibit works at the Fine Arts Institution. In 1823, Roberts moved to London, and worked at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in a position subordinate to Clarkson Stanfield and Gaetano Marinari. He soon turned more seriously to easel painting, and began to exhibit more regularly, being encouraged by the foundation, in the same year, of the Society of British Artists. (Eventually becoming its president in 1831, he resigned from the society in 1835 in the hope of being admitted to the Royal Academy of Arts.) He showed mainly at the British Institution (1824-59) and the Royal Academy (1826-64), his first exhibit at the RA being a version of his painting of Rouen Cathedral, the result of his initial trip abroad, to Normandy in 1824. (He would become an Associate of the RA in 1838, and a Royal Academician in 1841.) Through the late 1820s, while he was still painting scenery, at Covent Garden, his exhibited pictures were divided between French, Belgian and Scottish subjects. Germany was added following his Rhine journey in 1830.

On the recommendation of fellow Scots painter, John Wilkie, Roberts visited Spain, and Tangier, on his first extended foreign tour, in the years 1832-33. The sketches that he made became the basis of many oils and watercolours, and then of prints, including the engravings that appeared in Jennings’ Landscape Annual (1835-38) and the lithographs comprising Picturesque Sketches in Spain during the Years 1832 and 1833 (1837). The success of such work led Roberts to receive many commissions as a topographical illustrator, including one for T H Horne’s Landscape Illustrations of the Bible (1836), for which he developed the sketches made on the spot by other artists (as exemplified by the present watercolour [01]). As Briony Llewellyn explains, ‘These encounters with the oriental world … encouraged him to undertake a tour of the Near East in 1838. He was one of the first independent and professional British artists to experience the Orient at first hand’ (Briony Llewellyn 1996, page 463). During a tour lasting two years, he visited Egypt, the Holy Land and Syria, in order to study the major monumental ancient sites, notably those with biblical associations, and also record much of the contemporary picturesque detail. The resulting sketches provided material for a decade, and culminated in Views in the Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, a collection of 247 lithographs that were eventually published in six volumes in the years 1842-49. Long considered an invaluable source for topographical information on the Orient, these volumes earned him an international reputation. They also confirmed a clear change in his art, from the strong, luminous palette derived from 18th century Dutch masters to one that was more muted. While returning to France and the Low Countries through the 1840s, Roberts turned his attention to Italy during the following decade. He toured the northern states, as well as Austria, in 1851, and extended his experience to Rome and Naples in 1853-54. As a result, Italian subjects began to dominate his work. Then, in 1860, despite ill health, he began a ‘serries of Pictures of London from the River Thames’, in a much darker palette, an ambitious project that remained unfinished at the time of his death. He died at 38 Fitzroy Street, his home since 1839, on 25 November 1864. His wife, from whom he had separated, had died four years earlier, but he remained devoted to his daughter. His studio sale was held at Christie’s, on 13 and 15-19 May 1865, while a further sale of his estate took place on 7 April 1881. His work is represented in the Government Art Collection, the Royal Collection and numerous public collections, including the British Museum, Guildhall Art Gallery, Tate and the V&A; The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge), Manchester Art Gallery, Museums Sheffield and the Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool);

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums and the National Gallery of Scotland (Edinburgh); and Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, CT). Further reading: James Ballantine, The Life of David Roberts RA, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1866; Helen Guiterman, David Roberts, RA, 1796–1864, London, privately printed, 1986 (revised edition); Helen Guiterman and Briony Llewellyn (eds), David Roberts RA 1796-1864, Oxford: Phaidon/London: Barbican Art Gallery, 1986; Martin Hardie, ‘David Roberts, RA,

1796–1864’, The Old Water-Colour Society’s Club, vol 25, 1947, pages 10–20; Briony Llewellyn, ‘Roberts, David (b Stockbridge, nr Edinburgh, 24 Oct 1796; d London, 25 Nov 1864)’, Jane Turner (ed), The Dictionary of Art, London: Macmillan, 1996, vol 26, pages 463-464; Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz, ‘Roberts, David (1796-1864)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 47, pages 146-149

‘Hebron is an antient city of Palestine, situated in the heart of the hill-country of Judaea, about twenty-seven miles south-west from Jerusalem. Originally, it was called Kirjath-Arba, or the city of Arba, “which Arba was a great man among the Anakims.” (Josh. xiv. 15.) In the vicinity of this place Abraham abode, after he parted with Lot (Gen. xiii. 18.), and bought a field with a cave in which to bury his dead. (Gen. xxiii. 3-20.) Besides Abraham and Sarah, his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, with their wives Rebekah and Leah, and his great-grandson Joseph, were severally interred there (Gen. xxiii. 19. xxv. 10. xlix. 29-33. 1. 12, 13.) …

Hebron, Habroun, or, according to the Arabic orthography followed by the moderns, El Hhalil, is a flourishing town, the flat-roofed houses of which are closely jammed together. It contains about four hundred families of Arabs. The hill above it is composed of limestone rock, partially covered with vines; and its end is clothed with a wood of olives. The hill beyond the mosque, which edifice forms a prominent object in our view and which has never before been delineated or engraved, is more barren: and in the foreground there are masses of buildings thrown down and scattered in every direction; this portion of the town having been destroyed a few years since. The inhabitants are engaged in perpetual hostilities with those of Bethlehem, on which account it is less frequently visited by pilgrims. A splendid church was erected over the graves of the patriarchs by the empress Helena: it has long been converted into a Turkish mosque.’ (Landscape Illustrations of the Bible, Consisting of Views of the Most Remarkable Places Mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. From Original Sketches Taken on the Spot. Engraved by W E Finden: With Descriptions by … T H Horne, London: John Murray, 2 vols: vol 1 [unpaginated])

Hebron. Mosque Erected Over the Graves of Abraham and the Patriarchs Though David Roberts had travelled widely in Europe, and across to Tangier, by 1835, he had not then visited the Near East. However, his long-held fascination with what was known as ‘the Orient’ would lead to his pioneering tour of the region in the years 1838-40. He was encouraged in this enterprise by the commission of the present and related watercolours. The commission involved his working up sketches that had been made on the spot – by mainly amateur artists – in order to

compile a two-volume collection of Landscape Illustrations of the Bible (1836). He shared this task with a number of other leading landscape artists, including Augustus Wall Callcott, James Duffield Harding, Clarkson Stanfield and J M W Turner. Roberts based the present watercolour on a sketch by the artist and traveller, Mrs Selina Bracebridge (1803-1874), of Atherstone Hall, near Coventry. Having studied under Samuel Prout before her marriage, she showed promise as an artist and made drawings as a record of her extensive travels. Her journey, with her husband, Charles, to the Near East in 1833,

01 Hebron. Mosque erected over the graves of Abraham and the Patriarchs Signed and dated 1835 Watercolour 9 1⁄2 x 12 3⁄4 inches Provenance: The Fitch Collection Illustrated: Drawn from a sketch made on the spot by Mrs Bracebridge, engraved on steel by W Finden, and published by John Murray In 1835,

and sold also by C Tilt, 86 Fleet Street; Landscape Illustrations of the Bible, consisting of views of the most remarkable places mentioned in The Old and New Testaments. From Original sketches taken on the spot. Engraved by W and E Finden: with descriptions by ... T H Horne, London: John Murray, 2 vols: vol 1, [unpaginated] Exhibited: ‘English Watercolours’, Leger Galleries, NovemberDecember 1982, no 28; ‘The Fitch Collection’, Leger Galleries, MarchApril 1988, no 49

took in the Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. The results included not only the sketches that she made for others to work up, but also ‘manuscript communications’ that aided T H Horne in his descriptions to Landscape Illustrations of the Bible.

(see the adjacent extract). Long revered by the Religions of the Book, the Cave of the Patriarchs was first enclosed by the Jewish king, Herod the Great, in the first century BC, and later marked by a roofed mosque, when Muslims took control of Hebron in 637 AD. Between then and 1833, the year of the visit of Mrs Bracebridge, the building underwent many stages of expansion and decoration, and remains in good condition. However, since the mid twentieth century, the shrine has become a centre of dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.

In addition, she produced two lithographic publications of her own: Six Views Sketched in the Lebanon and a Panoramic Sketch of Jerusalem (both 1834). The setting and significance of the building that Bracebridge and Roberts depicted were described in detail by T H Horne

JOH N LOUI S P E T IT The Reverend John Louis Petit, MA FSA (1801-1868)

An architectural historian and watercolour painter, John Louis Petit played a significant role in encouraging interest in the Gothic style and its revival. As an artist, he specialised in depicting historic buildings, particularly churches, in order to provide a record and illustrate his writings. However, he applied his swift, fresh handling – influenced by earlier topographers – to a wide range of subjects, from Manningtree to the Near East.

talents and antiquarian interests, which were fuelled by his travels. He made his first extensive Continental tour in 1839, publishing the results of his experiences two years later, in an early book, Remarks on Church Architecture. One of those who helped found the British Archaeological Institute (at Cambridge in 1844), he was also alive to contemporary debates in architecture, notably opposing George Gilbert Scott’s plans to replace the Gothic fabric of the south transept of St Mary’s Stafford (in 1841).

John Louis Petit was descended from the Huguenot family of Petit des Etans from Caen in Normandy, and would prove to be its last male representative. He was born in Ashton-underLyne, Lancashire, on 31 May 1801, the eldest son of Harriet Petit (née Astley) and the Rev John Hayes Petit, perpetual curate of Shareshill, Staffordshire, and owner of the estate of Ettingshall Park, in the same county, and close to Wolverhampton. Following his education at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (1819-23), he inherited this estate from his father, in 1822, and lived on the profits made from mining the coal, iron ore and limestone that lay within its bounds. In 1828, he married Louisa Elizabeth Reid, in Wye, Kent.

In the late 1840s, Petit left his curacy and moved to The Uplands, Shifnal, Staffordshire, which remained his home until 1864. During this period, he focussed on his antiquarian interests, publishing a number of books and pamphlets and, as a result, being elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1850) and an honorary member of the Institute of British Architects. His major work was Architectural Studies in France (1854), though his writings also included British subjects, for instance The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury (1848) and The Architectural History of Chichester Cathedral (1861, in collaboration with Edmund Sharpe and Robert Willis).

Having been ordained as a deacon in 1824, and as a priest in 1825, Petit became curate at Bradfield, near Manningtree, in Essex, only in 1840. While there, he developed his artistic

An able draughtsman and watercolourist, Petit worked ‘in the tradition of English topographical … painters of the previous generation’ (Guy Braithwaite), and recorded many buildings, in whole and part, in order to illustrate his own writings. He also designed at least one building of his own: the church of St Philip Caerdeon, near Barmouth, north Wales. It was commissioned in 1862, by his brother-in-law, the Rev William

02-05 are from an album from the archives of the Rev John Louis Petit Old Church Wolverhampton Founded in Anglo-Saxon times, St Peter’s Church originally had ‘collegiate’ status, in that it was maintained by a secular community of canons, rather than monks, and in ways similar to a cathedral. Substantially rebuilt in the fifteenth century, in the Perpendicular style, it was given the status of a Royal Peculiar in 1480, so that it fell under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch, then Edward IV, rather than under a bishop. From that date the Dean of Wolverhampton and the Dean of Windsor were one and the same. By the nineteenth century, the importance of the deanery was so undermined that the status of Royal Peculiar came to an end and, in 1848, St Peter’s became a parish church. The watercolour by Petit, who had family connections with Wolverhampton, seems to have been made before a major programme of restoration began in 1852. 02 Old Church Wolverhampton Inscribed with title on original mount Watercolour 11 1⁄4 x 9 1⁄4 inches

Edward Jelf, so that he could take services in English. Its style, based on that of chapels in the Pyrenees, proved controversial. Following an extensive tour of the Near East in the years 1864-65, he lived in Lichfield until his death on 1 December 1868. The following year saw a memorial exhibition of his drawings at the Architectural Exhibition Society, in Conduit Street, London, and the posthumous publication of his poem, The Lesser and the Greater Light. His work is represented in the collections of the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, Lichfield, and Staffordshire Museums and Art Gallery. Further reading: Guy Braithwaite, ‘Petit, John Louis (1801-1868)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 43, pages 890-892

9 03 View on the Stour, Essex Inscribed with title on original mount Watercolour 6 x 9 3⁄4 inches

04 View on the Stour, Essex Inscribed with title on original mount Watercolour 6 x 9 3⁄4 inches

05 On the Orwell Inscribed with title Watercolour 4 x 5 inches

Views on the Stour, Essex; On the Orwell Petit is likely to have painted these views during the 1840s, while holding the curacy of Bradfield, a village in northeast Essex that is situated west of Harwich, and overlooks the River Stour. The Stour and the Orwell both flow into Harwich Harbour.

GE O RGE W E AT H E RI L L George Weatherill (1810-1890) One of Yorkshire’s finest watercolourists, George Weatherill spent his entire life in the Whitby area. Though painting only in his spare time until the age of 50, he developed such a reputation as an artist that he became known as the ‘Turner of the North’.

The second son of a Yorkshire farmer, George Weatherill was born in the fishing village of Staithes on 18 September 1810. A delicate, intelligent child, he spent much of his spare time down by the shore sketching in the sand. It was decided that he would be best suited to a clerical career, and he was apprenticed to Garbutt, a solicitor based then in Guisborough and later in Yarm. During this apprenticeship, he became acquainted with George Haydock Dodgson, a local painter, who discovered and developed his artistic talent. At the age of 20, he moved to Whitby to work for Henry Butcher, later joining the staff of the bankers Simpson and Chapman. Yet he painted whenever possible, exploring the surrounding villages and towns in order to find picturesque compositions, and even rising early to study the sunrise. Once his position at the bank was assured, he was occasionally sent to London on business, and was eventually promoted to Chief Cashier. During his stays in the capital, he would visit the National Gallery, and gradually taught himself Italian so that he could read the Italian works on the Florentine, Roman and Venetian Schools.

Becoming particularly inspired by the example of J M W Turner, he made a number of engravings of his work. As if to emphasise both his quality and his status as a resolutely local artist, he was dubbed the ‘Turner of the North’. He exhibited a mere half dozen pictures in metropolitan exhibitions, at the Society of British Artists and the Dudley Gallery, and was mainly patronised by Northern industrialists and merchants. The pressure of balancing two careers led Weatherill to have a nervous breakdown and, in 1860, at the age of 50, he resigned from the bank. On regaining his health, he returned to his painting and soon earned more from his painting alone than he had from both banking and painting. As a local celebrity, he would certainly have met painters visiting the picturesque Whitby, and probably knew Alfred William Hunt who often painted in the village. He died on 30 August 1890 and is buried in Whitby cemetery. In turn, his application encouraged his children to become artists; his son Richard and his daughters Elizabeth, Mary and Sarah Ellen continued and extended his approach to painting. Further reading: Chris Beetles, George Weatherill (1810-1890), London: Chris Beetles Limited, 1982; Joyce Harland, George Weatherill (1810-1890), Whitby: The Pannett Gallery, 1994

Whitby: From Union Mill Towards the Abbey Looking eastwards across Whitby, towards the west front of the Abbey, this view is dominated by Union Mill.

06 Whitby: From Union Mill Towards the Abbey Watercolour 3 1⁄2 x 5 1⁄2 inches

In March 1800, a group of local businessmen met to discuss their concerns about the disappointing harvests of the preceding decade, and the need to ensure that flour was made available to the poor at an affordable price. As a result they formed the Union-Mill Society of over 800 subscribers and set about building a windmill. The five-sailed circular tower was about eight stories high with an onion cap, and rose up between a three-story symmetrical workshop-cumwarehouse. Operating successfully for the first 15 years, the society then had a checkered history until it was finally wound up in 1888. The building was demolished in 1923.

07 Ruswarp Signed Watercolour 5 x 8 inches

Ruswarp George Weatherill produced a number of watercolours of Ruswarp, a village that sits on the River Esk, a mile and a half south of Whitby. This image looks in a southerly direction towards the railway bridge, across which runs a steam train in the direction of Pickering. The tower of St Bartholomew’s Church rises to the right; local architect, Charles Noel Armfield, designed it in the late 1860s. Conceived by George Stephenson as a single-track horse-drawn railway, the Whitby to Pickering Line opened in 1836. It began to be rebuilt as a double tracked steam railway in 1845. Another section of the line can be seen in Whitby from Larpool [10].

08 Whitby Abbey Signed Watercolour 4 3⁄4 x 8 1⁄4 inches

09 Larpool, on the River Esk Signed Watercolour with bodycolour and pencil 4 3⁄4 x 8 1⁄4 inches

10 Whitby from Larpool Signed and dated 1876 Watercolour with bodycolour 7 1⁄2 x 14 1⁄4 inches

Larpool, on the River Esk; Whitby from Larpool Larpool lies on the River Esk, between Whitby to the north and Ruswarp to the south. The steeply wooded banks provide a fine view of Whitby, as can be seen in Whitby from Larpool. The area boasts two significant architectural features: Larpool Viaduct and Larpool Hall, which appear respectively to the left and right of Larpool, on the River Esk. The hall was built in the late 18th century, while the viaduct was constructed between 1882 and 1884, to carry the Scarborough & Whitby Railway. As Weatherill shows the viaduct in use, he must have painted it in the last five years of his life.

11 Yorkshire Hamlet Signed and dated 1874 Watercolour with bodycolour 4 3â &#x201E;4 x 7 3â &#x201E;4 inches

12 On the Moors Signed and dated 1875 Watercolour with bodycolour 11 x 16 inches

13 Low Tide, Whitby Sands Signed Watercolour with pencil 4 3⁄4 x 8 inches

14 Fishing Boats, Whitby Sands Watercolour on board 4 3⁄4 x 8 1⁄4 inches

15 Wrecked Hull, Whitby Sands Watercolour 3 1⁄2 x 5 1⁄4 inches

16 Mackerel Sky, off the Coast of Whitby Signed Watercolour 5 1⁄4 x 9 1⁄4 inches

17 Whitby Harbour Signed Watercolour on board 4 3⁄4 x 8 1⁄4 inches

18 Low Tide, Whitby Sands Signed Watercolour 3 3⁄4 x 5 1⁄2 inches

19 Whitby Cliffs Signed Watercolour 4 1⁄2 x 7 3⁄4 inches

20 The River Esk at Whitby Signed Watercolour 3 3⁄4 x 5 1⁄2 inches

21 Staithes, near Whitby Watercolour 3 1⁄2 x 5 1⁄2 inches

ED WAR D L E A R Edward Lear (1812-1888) Though now best known for his nonsense poems and drawings for children, Edward Lear made his initial reputation as an ornithological illustrator, and then earned his living as a landscape painter. During extensive travels in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, he made frequent, evocative sketches that acted as the basis for astonishing oils and watercolours. For a biography of Edward Lear, please refer to Chris Beetles Summer Show, 1998, page 25.

His work is represented numerous public collections, including the British Museum, The Courtauld Gallery, the Government Art Collection, Tate and the V&A; the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge), and The Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester); and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston MA). Further reading includes, Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear 18121888, London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1985; Vivien Noakes, The Painter Edward Lear, Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1991 .

18 22 Near Nadur, Gozo Inscribed with title and ‘(232)’ and various brief notes, and dated ‘23. March. 1866. 2.30 pm’ Inscribed ‘Long’, ‘Lowest’ and ‘47’ on reverse Pen ink and watercolour with pencil 14 1⁄4 x 4 1⁄2 inches

Near Nadur, Gozo In the winter of 1865-66, Edward Lear returned to the Mediterranean island of Malta for a third time. His biographer, Vivien Noakes, has described his stay as so ‘sad and lonely’ that ‘the island ceased to have any charm for him’ (Vivien Noakes, 1985, page 116). However, in March 1866, he went on to visit Malta’s smaller and more fertile sister, Gozo, and found it much more appealing. In a letter to his patron, Lady Waldegrave, dated 13 April 1866, he wrote: Did I tell you of my visit to Oudesh, vulgarly called Gozo? It was a most pleasant one, and with the aid of [my manservant] Giorgio [Kokali] I drew every bit of it, walking fifteen or twenty miles a day. Its Coast scenery may truly be called pomskizillious and gromphibberous, being as no words can describe its magnificence. (Lady Strachey (ed), Later Letters of Edward Lear …, London: T Fisher Unwin, 1911, page 77) It is uncertain what Lear meant by ‘Oudesh’, but it may well be a misreading of ‘Ogygia’ by the editor of his letters; for he was aware that Gozo was associated with Ogygia, the island home of the nymph, Calypso, in Homer’s Odyssey. Indeed, around this time, he wrote a poem that begins:

Gozo, my child, is the Isle of Calypso That naughty young woman who made egg flip so One of the enthusiastic neologisms that he applied to Gozo is now used for the name of the Pomskizillious Museum of Toys, the collection of which was brought to the island from Devon in 1992. Its displays include a waxwork of Lear sitting at a desk. The present watercolour shows the landscape in the east of Gozo, between the village of Nadur and the coast. Now the second largest settlement on the island, Nadur was built on a high plateau and given a name that appropriately means lookout. Through history, it played an important part in defending the island from pirates. In 1667, Nicolas Cotoner, Grand Master of the Order of Malta, contributed to this work; for he built Ta’ Sopu Tower on the cliffs between the bays of San Blas and Dahlet Qorrot. It is possible that Lear depicted the tower on the left of this panorama. Like Malta, Gozo had been part of the British Empire since 1814, and remained so at the time of Lear’s visits. In 1848, the British built the tower of Ta’ Kenuna, in the village of Nadur itself, in order to improve communications by creating a telegraphic link with Malta.

H ERCUL ES BR ABA ZO N BR A BA Z O N Hercules Brabazon Brabazon, NEAC PS (1821-1906) For much of his life, Hercules Brabazon Brabazon pleased himself as a gentleman traveller, producing luminous, loosely-handled watercolours of favourite paintings and places (including India, which he visited in 1870, 1875 and 1876). Admired by John Ruskin as an heir to J M W Turner, he joined the eminent critic on a sketching tour to northern France in 1880.Yet his startling modernity was probably recognised only in the 1890s, by a younger generation of artists, which included John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer. Through their enthusiasm, he was elected a member of the New English Art Club in 1891, and held the first of a series of solo shows at the Goupil Gallery in the following year.

For a biography of Hercules Brabazon Brabazon, please refer to Chris Beetles Summer Show, 1998, page 79. For further information of the life and work of Brabazon, please see Art and Sunshine, published by Chris Beetles Limited in 1996. His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Museum, The Courtauld Gallery, Tate and the V&A; The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge), Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester); and Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge MA).

23 Scutari Signed with initials Watercolour and bodycolour on tinted paper 5 x 6 3⁄4 inches

Scutari Scutari is the former, Greek language name for the Istanbul district of Üsküdar, which sits on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, and faces the city centre. Its many significant buildings include the early nineteenth century Selimiye Barracks, used by British troops during the Crimean War of 1854-56, both as accommodation and hospital. Florence Nightingale arrived at the hospital in November 1854, with 38 volunteer nurses, and attempted to improve on the poor care that was being delivered to the wounded soldiers. Her call for a solution eventually led to Isambard Kingdom Brunel designing a prefabricated hospital, which was constructed at Renkioi, on the Dardanelles in 1856. Curiously, one of the surgeons working at Scutari during the Crimean War was Anthony Beaufort Brabazon (1821-1896) of County Meath. He was very distantly related to Hercules Brabazon Brabazon. The artist is recorded as having been in the region in 1860.

24 Venice from the Lagoon Signed with initials Watercolour and bodycolour with pencil on tinted paper 8 1â &#x201E;2 x 10 3â &#x201E;4 inches

25 Santa Maria Della Salute,Venice Signed with initials Watercolour and bodycolour 9 x 10 1â &#x201E;4 inches Illustrated: C Lewis Hind, Hercules Brabzon Brabazon (1821-1906), his Art and Life, George Allen & Company, 1927

26 Los Borrachos Signed with initials Watercolour 9 3⁄4 x 12 1⁄4 inches

Los Borrachos The Triumph of Bacchus, or The Drinkers, was Velazquez’ first mythological subject, painted in 1628-29, and bought for the Spanish Royal Collection. Naturalistic in its representation of the God of Wine with a group of drinkers, it proved highly influential on many of the European painters of the late 19th century who saw it at the Museo del Prado, Madrid. The influence is seen, for instance, in Edouard Manet’s The Old Musician (1862; National Gallery of Art, Washington), and the present souvenir by Brabazon.

27 On the Road to Bukhara, Turkistan Signed with initials Watercolour 8 x 5 1⁄4 inches

28 A Castle on the Rhine Watercolour and bodycolour on tinted paper 8 1⁄2 x 9 3⁄4 inches

A LFR ED W ILL IA M H U N T Alfred William Hunt, VPRWS (1830-1896) Though they came from very different social backgrounds, Alfred William Hunt may be compared to his friend, Albert Goodwin, as one of the leading landscape painters to follow the principles of John Ruskin. He achieved this by ‘fusing the sweep and atmosphere of Turner with Pre-Raphaelite finish and compositional originality’ (Scott Wilcox 1996, page 24). For a biography of Alfred William Hunt, please refer to Chris Beetles Summer Show, 2004, page 14.

Further reading: Christopher Newall, ‘Hunt, Alfred William (1830-1896)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 28, pages 833-834; Christopher Newall, The Poetry of Truth. Alfred William Hunt and the Art of Landscape, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2004; Scott Wilcox, ‘Hunt, Alfred William (b Liverpool, 15 Nov 1830; d London, 3 May 1896)’, Jane Turner (ed), The Dictionary of Art, London: Macmillan, 1996, vol 15, pages 23-24

His work is represented in numerous public collections, including Tate; and the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford) and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

29 Barnard Castle Monochrome watercolour 6 x 9 inches

Barnard Castle This monochrome watercolour of Barnard Castle, a medieval ruin on the River Tees, was produced as a preparatory study for a larger watercolour of the same name, painted in 1862 and now in a private collection. (For an image of the finished work, see Christopher Newall, 2004, page 97.) At the time of its production, A W Hunt was living some 20 miles away, in Durham.

‘The steep-sided and densely wooded banks of the Greta from Rokeby, where the river joins the Tees, to past the village of Brignall, lying to the south of Barnard Castle in County Durham, were among Hunt’s favourite painting grounds.’ (Christopher Newall in Allen Staley and Christopher Newall, Pre-Raphaelite Vision. Truth to Nature, London: Tate Publishing, 2004, page 163)

30 Stormy Day, Goring Lock Signed with initials Watercolour 9 1⁄2 x 14 1⁄2 inches

Goring Lock In the late 1860s, Alfred William Hunt painted a number of views of the upper Thames valley, possibly at the encouragement of his friend and fellow artist, George Price Boyce.

31 Rokeby,Yorkshire Watercolour 11 1⁄2 x 15 1⁄2 inches Provenance: Bought from the artist May 1880 by William Kendrick, £63, and by descent in the family Exhibited: ‘The Watercolour Tradition in Landscape’, Nunnington Hall, April-June 2013

Rokeby Nineteenth-century artists were attracted to the North Yorkshire landscape surrounding Rokeby Park, on the River Greta, because of its intrinsic beauty and its associations with Walter Scott’s epic poem, ‘Rokeby’. Before Alfred William Hunt, visitors had included John Sell Cotman and J M W Turner.

AT K I N SO N G RI MS H AW John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) Despite unpropitious beginnings and a lack of formal artistic training, Atkinson Grimshaw developed into one of the most distinctive artists of the Victorian age. His landscapes and townscapes, especially those in moonlight or at sunset, are instantly recognisable and highly memorable, imbuing as they do contemporary life with the quality of Romantic poetry. Atkinson Grimshaw was born in Leeds on 6 September 1836, the eldest of the six children of a policeman. The family lived in Norwich between 1842 and 1848, and for a short while Grimshaw attended the local King Edward VI Grammar School. Following the family’s return to Leeds, Grimshaw’s mother opened a grocer’s shop, while his father became a railway clerk. Grimshaw himself began to work as a clerk with the Great Northern Railway Company in 1852. During that decade, he took up painting in his spare time despite opposition from his parents, who were strict Baptists. His marriage to his cousin, Frances Hubbarde, daughter of the editor of the Wakefield Journal, in December 1857, freed him from their influence. After ten years of marriage, the couple would even convert to Roman Catholicism.

Never undertaking any formal art training, Grimshaw developed his talent by looking at paintings in local galleries and shops. By 1859, he was selling work through a bookseller. Then, in 1861, he gave up his position as a clerk to devote his time to painting, and held his first exhibition in the following year, at the premises of the carver and gilder, John Newton. His earliest works include still life subjects in the manner of William Henry Hunt and landscapes that reveal the influence of ‘truth to nature’ as promoted by John Ruskin and practised by the Pre-Raphaelites, particularly the local follower of the movement, John William Inchbold. Travels around Yorkshire and to the Lake District, which he recorded through photography as well as drawing, expanded his repertoire. By the close of the 1860s, he was beginning to produce the first of the trademark moonlit scenes that signal his Romantic turn of mind. By 1870, Grimshaw had established a strong clientele of local middle-class industrialists. As a result, he was able to rent Knostrop Old Hall, a 17th century manor house on the Temple Newsam estate, two miles east of the centre of Leeds. Remaining the family’s primary home for over 20 years, it would feature in many of the artist’s paintings. The decade would prove his most successful, both artistically and financially, as he sold his work through Thomas Agnew’s galleries in London and the provinces. In developing the subject of the moonlit landscape, he would establish two strains: ‘damp, autumnal lanes featuring a lonely house and single figure’ and ‘converging buildings and dock-side shipping, a wet road reflecting passers-by and the lights from the shop windows’

(Alexander Robertson 2004, page 29). An example of the former, The Lady of the Lea, was accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, in 1874, the first of only five. An example of the latter is included here. In the mid 1870s, Grimshaw expanded his range of subjects, producing images of beautiful young women in interiors, both contemporary and historical; the first emulated James Tissot and the second Lawrence Alma-Tadema. He also extended his household, renting a seaside home at Scarborough, from 1876, which he refurbished with battlements and turrets, and named the ‘Castle-by-the-Sea’, alluding to a poem by Longfellow. For a while, Scarborough became his favourite subject. However, in 1879, he suffered a major financial disaster, ‘allegedly having guaranteed a bill for a friend who decamped and left him with heavy debts’ (Sellars 2011, page 172). He had to vacate his Scarborough residence, and increase his output. To this end, Grimshaw employed experimental techniques, on some occasions painting over a photographic base and on others projecting a negative onto a canvas. He also revisited favourite motifs, and especially moonlight, which he now applied to scenes of London as well as the industrial cities of the north. In the mid 1880s, he again exhibited in the capital: at the Royal Academy, the Grosvenor Gallery and Arthur Tooth and Sons. For about two years, from 1885, he even rented a workspace in the city – at Trafalgar Studios, Manresa Road, Chelsea – and, while there, became acquainted with James McNeill Whistler. Whistler’s influence can be seen in the restricted palette of the small-scale landscapes – of beach, estuary and snow – that Grimshaw painted in the last years of his life. Dying at Knostrop Old Hall on 31 October 1893, he was survived by his wife and six of their children. Two sons, Arthur and Louis, became painters and worked in their father’s manner. His work is represented in numerous public collections, including Tate; Bradford Museums & Galleries, Leeds Art Gallery and The Mercer Art Gallery (Harrogate); and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid). Further reading: G R Phillips, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1836-1893, Leeds, 1972. Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, Oxford: Phaidon, 1996 (2nd edition); Alexander Robertson, ‘Grimshaw, (John) Atkinson (b Leeds, 6 Sept 1836; d Leeds, 31 Oct 1893)’, Jane Turner (ed), The Dictionary of Art, London: Macmillan, 1996, vol 13, pages 666-667; Alexander Robertson, ‘Grimshaw (John) Atkinson (1836-1893), H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 24, pages 29-30; Jane Sellars (ed), Atkinson Grimshaw. Painter of Moonlight, Harrogate: The Mercer Art Gallery, 2011

32 Shipping on the Clyde Signed and dated 1881 Oil on board 11 3⁄4 x 19 1⁄2 inches

‘John Atkinson Grimshaw’s depictions of the docks of Victorian Britain are lyrically beautiful evocations of the industrial era. Grimshaw transcribed the fog and mist so accurately as to capture the chill in the damp air, and the moisture penetrating the heavy clothes of the few figures awake in the misty early morning. Grimshaw contrasted the different light sources in his paintings, using the moon, the gaslights from the shop interiors, the street and vehicle lamps to variegate the pattern of reflections on the rain-drenched pavement and roads. In Shipping on the Clyde, sparkling highlights are produced from a small fire which is burning at the road-side, beside which two dock workers are warming themselves.’ (Nicola Ayton in Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid: Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2004, page 204; she is describing another version of Shipping on the Clyde, which was painted in the same year)

A LB E RT GO O D W I N Albert Goodwin, RWS (1845-1932) In synthesising the influences of J M W Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, Albert Goodwin may be considered one of the most Ruskinian of Victorian landscape painters. Indeed, he was taken up by John Ruskin and, in 1872, given the opportunity to travel with him on an intensive tour of Italy and Switzerland. This set the pattern for many further and extensive travels. Like Ruskin, Goodwin responded to landscape with a religious fervour and understanding; but he interpreted it with even greater eclecticism than did his mentor, even experimenting with the style of James McNeill Whistler, Ruskin’s adversary in the field of aesthetics.

For a biography of Albert Goodwin, please refer to Chris Beetles Summer Show, 1998, page 42.

33 Boat Launching Inscribed with title Pencil and white crayon on tinted paper 13 1⁄2 x 10 inches Provenance: The Estate of Lyndon Goodwin Harris

34 The Fisherman Pencil on tinted paper 9 1⁄2 x 5 1⁄2 inches Pencil sketches of the same figure on reverse Provenance: The Estate of Lyndon Goodwin Harris

His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Museum, Tate, the V&A, The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge), Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester). For further information on the life and work of Goodwin, please refer to Albert Goodwin RWS 1845-1932 (1986), Albert Goodwin RWS 1845-1932 (1996) and Albert Goodwin RWS 1845-1932 (2007), all published by Chris Beetles Limited. Chris Beetles has also published a sumptuous limited edition vol of over 400 pages and more than 200 colour plates, accompanied by extracts from Goodwin’s diaries.

35 Villefranche Riviera Signed with monogram and inscribed with title Watercolour with pen and ink 10 x 14 1â &#x201E;2 inches

36 Tombs of the Caliphs, Cairo Signed and inscribed with title Watercolour and bodycolour, enclosed within a decorative border 8 x 12 inches

37 A City Sunset with Saint Paul’s across the River Signed and dated /98 Watercolour 9 1⁄4 x 12 3⁄4 inches

38 Lincoln Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1922 Watercolour with pencil and bodycolour 10 1⁄2 x 15 inches

39 Hastings Signed and inscribed with title Watercolour and bodycolour on tinted paper enclosed within a decorative border 10 3⁄4 x 14 1⁄2 inches

40 Atop the East Hill Hastings Signed and inscribed with title Watercolour with bodycolour on tinted paper 9 1⁄4 x 13 1⁄4 inches

41 Rye Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1908 Watercolour with bodycolour 13 3⁄4 x 20 inches

42 Rye Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1904 Watercolour 9 3⁄4 x 14 3⁄4 inches

43 Rye, Sussex Signed and inscribed with title Watercolour and bodycolour on tinted paper, enclosed within a decorative border 10 1⁄2 x 14 1⁄2 inches

44 Durham Signed and inscribed with title Pen ink and monochrome watercolour with bodycolour 10 3⁄4 x 14 3⁄4 inches Exhibited: ‘Albert Goodwin, RWS (1845-1932)’, Young Gallery, Salisbury, April-May 2012, no 54

45 Whitby Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1907 Watercolour with pen ink and pencil 10 1⁄2 x 14 3⁄4 inches

46 York Minster from the Walls Signed and inscribed ‘York Minster’ Watercolour and bodycolour on tinted paper, enclosed within a decorative border 10 3⁄4 x 14 1⁄2 inches

47 York Minster Signed and inscribed with title Watercolour and bodycolour, enclosed within a decorative border 11 x 14 3⁄4 inches

W I LLI AM WA LCOT William Walcot, RBA RE (1874-1943) First establishing his career as an architect in Moscow, William Walcot went on to become ‘the greatest British architectural draughtsman of the twentieth century’ (Gavin Stamp, The Great Perspectivists, London: Trefoil Books, 1982, page 139). Displaying equal proficiency in watercolour, oil and etching, his achievements in this field range from reconstructions of ancient Rome to presentation drawings for such new projects as Lutyens’ New Delhi.

For a biography of William Walcot, please refer to Chris Beetles Summer Show, 2004, page 34. Further reading: Sir Reginald Blomfield (intro), Architectural Water-Colours and Etchings of W Walcot, London: H C Dickins/ Technical Journals, 1919; M C Salaman (ed), William Walcot, RE, London: The Studio, 1927; William Walcot, 1874-1943: Artist-architect: An exhibition of his life and work, London: Gallery Lingard, 1986

48 On the Steps of St Peter’s, Rome Oil on canvas on board 27 1⁄4 x 35 inches

49 The Arch of Titus Garibaldi’s Red Shirts March on Rome Signed and dated 1917 Watercolour and bodycolour 25 x 19 1⁄2 inches

50 Mansion House from the Royal Exchange Signed Watercolour with gum arabic on tinted paper 8 1⁄4 x 11 inches

51 St Paul’s Watercolour 9 x 11 1⁄4 inches

52 Le Palais du Justice, Bruxelles Signed Watercolour and pencil with gum arabic 18 1⁄4 x 22 1⁄2 inches Exhibited: ‘Recent Acquisitions’, Aitken & Dott, Edinburgh, April-May 1977

Another watercolour by William Walcot of Le Palais de Justice, Brussels is illustrated in Sir Reginald Blomfield RA (intro), Architectural Water Colours & Etchings of W Walcot, London: H C Dickins/ Technical Journals, 1919, page 125

GU Y W I GG IN S Guy Carleton Wiggins (1883-1962) The American Impressionist painter, Guy Wiggins, became most famous for his scenes of New York, especially of its busy streets and imposing landmarks seen under snow. Guy Wiggins was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on 23 February 1883, son of Carleton Wiggins, a painter of landscapes and animals. He grew up in England, where he received a grammar school education, but returned to the

Nos 53-54 are Provenance: The Estate of Leona M Helmsley

53 Washington Square, Winter Signed Oil on canvas 25 x 30 inches

United States to study art. Training first at his fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s school in Old Lyme, Connecticut, he took a course in architecture at the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn, and then enrolled in the National Academy of Design, New York City, where he numbered William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri among his teachers. At the age of only 20, he became the youngest American artist to have work accepted for the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. He began to receive numerous prizes and, in 1919, was elected to full membership of the National Academy of Design.

Before the First World War, Wiggins had travelled and painted in Europe. While in England he met his first wife, Dorothy Stuart Johnson. The couple returned to the USA and, in 1920, moved to a farm in Hamburg Cove, Connecticut, close to Old Lyme. It remained their home until 1937, when they relocated to Essex, also in Connecticut, where Wiggins set up his own art school. He liked to spend his winters in New York and, working in the tradition of French and American Impressionism, became known for his snowy scenes of the city.

Divorcing Dorothy in the early 1940s, Wiggins married Dolores Gaxton Hughes in 1948. He continued to paint, teach and travel until the end of his life, dying on vacation in St Augustine, Florida, on 25 April 1962. His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC).

54 Blizzard at Columbus Circle Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1936 on reverse Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches

MUR IEL PE M BE RTO N Muriel Pemberton, RWS FSIA (1909-1993) Muriel Pemberton was a pioneering teacher of fashion and an artist of highly pleasurable figures, flower pieces and abstracts. Becoming a successful, and worse, a world-famous teacher has often proved the kiss of death to any serious artistic reputation the person may have. Even discounting rivals and enemies who nod sagely and murmur ‘Those who can do; those who can’t, teach’, it is almost inevitable that the calls teaching makes on one’s time and energies, plus the difficulty of keeping one’s end up in a world that, if not hostile, is at the very least totally unconcerned, defeats the best efforts of even the most determined artists. Among all those who have died in their eighties, Muriel Pemberton arguably found the best solution: like Katherine Moore, who published the first of her three brilliant novels in her eighties, once she was safely retired (or sort of ), Muriel went back to her original obsessive production of art, painting, like they say, as if there were no tomorrow – because, after all, there might well not be.

By no means all the works included here were painted in Muriel’s seventies and eighties, but many of them were. She began as an ordinary art student, who just happened to have this particular interest in fashion. This cannot have been so unusual among female art students of the 1920s. What was unique was how she responded to it. She did not see it as a nice, suitable hobby for young ladies, but a discipline, and a neglected discipline at that. Born in Tunstall, one of the less famous of the Five Towns, she showed artistic talent at an early age, so everyone expected she would do what most artistic young women did around there, get a job decorating pots in one of the many potteries round about. She did not see that in her future, and instead won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, where she entered the School of Painting.

something about this. After careful consideration, he agreed that she could map out her own syllabus and, if he approved it, teach it herself, to herself. Thus she became in 1931 the only student to graduate from the Royal College in Fashion Studies. As part of the curriculum she had devised for herself, she managed to insert herself into the workshops of the dressmakers by appointment to Queen Mary, to do what she had always wanted to do, draw beautiful people in beautiful clothes. Inevitably, Reville and Rossiter were extremely conservative in their designs, but, designing for the Queen, they also designed for the grandest ladies of the Establishment, their materials were of the richest, and their workmanship was superb. What she could not learn there, she learned at the Katinka School of Cutting in Knightsbridge, where she negotiated a bargain: she would teach their students design if they would teach her cutting. All the skills so acquired came in handy when she began working for a grand furrier in Carlos Place as a fashion illustrator for their advertisements in Vogue and elsewhere, and then for Vogue directly on the editorial pages. Of course, none of this would have been possible if Muriel had not had built-in talents as a draughtsman and a watercolourist. It was early agreed that she was the best in her field as a visual journalist, able with unequalled speed and precision to capture the essentials of clothes she might see for a moment on the catwalk during fashion shows by the grandest designers. But as well as loving the specific work she was doing, she was also fanatically dedicated to light and colour, and their vivid rendering in watercolour.

Which was all quite flattering, but not, she rapidly realised, very practical. At home for the holidays, she had a telling experience. Like her mother and her sister, she designed and made her own clothes. One day she found she was being stalked by a stylish looking lady who eventually plucked up the courage to ask her where she had bought the dress she was wearing, because the lady, who turned out to be the wife of a leading local architect, wanted to buy one just like it. This put an idea into her head: when she returned to the Royal College she got herself transferred to the far less prestigious School of Design, with a firm determination to specialise in fashion.

She was fascinated by character, and by capturing the characters she saw around her, which she frequently did in a very personal way, working directly in watercolour without any underlying drawing. This was the technique she encouraged her students to use in fashion drawing, and she did this a lot for her portraits, in odd moments snatched from teaching. During the holidays she took (what holidays?) she loved to paint landscapes from morning to night, and, inevitably for someone so besotted with vibrant colour, she adored painting flowers. But that was only the start of it. During the 1930s, as well as running the school of fashion design and drawing she had invented, which became internationally known and brought in students from all over the world, she continued to widen her sphere of influence by taking up several other regular jobs, though how she found time for them no one could tell.

Unfortunately no such course then existed, but undeterred, Muriel bearded the head of the School, Professor Tristram, an expert in medieval wall painting famous enough to be satirised by Osbert Lancaster, in his office, and demanded he do

Among the new jobs she undertook were designing cards for Fortnum’s and fabrics for Liberty. She also, as a longtime theatre lover, could not resist answering an advertisement from the great producer C B Cochran for a costume designer

at the Adelphi Theatre. She took along her portfolio and got the job, which entailed having a studio in an old actor’s dressing room at the theatre, so over-lit that eventually it began to harm her eyesight. That particular job ended with the closure of nearly all London theatres at the beginning of the war – shortly after which all her original costume designs, on display in the theatre lobbies, were stolen by some crazed enthusiast and never surfaced again.

Bernard Nevill and Jorn Langberg. Though sadly her husband died just after she retired, she was able at last to devote more of her time to her first and last love, painting. But only someone who did not know her at all would suppose that the world had seen the last of Muriel the inspired teacher. She could seldom, met with a barrage of requests from schools and colleges along the south coast, restrain the compulsion to pass on what she knew to youngsters eager to drink it all in.

Never one to slacken pace for anything, Muriel continued to work flat out until her official retirement in 1975. During that time a number of the most famous younger British designers passed through her classes, including Bill Gibb, Bruce Oldfield,

Easy enough in the circumstances to forget or downplay what else she was. But, as Jeffrey Archer says and this catalogue amply demonstrates, ‘She is a courageous painter who uses colour without regard to convention, producing a final result that shows she is amongst the finest exponents in the art of modern watercolours’.

Nos 55-62 are: Provenance: The Artist’s Estate Literature: John Russell Taylor, Muriel Pemberton. Art and Fashion, London: Chris Beetles Limited, 1993 Exhibited: ‘Muriel Pemberton’, June 1993

John Russell Taylor, the author of Muriel Pemberton. Art and Fashion (Chris Beetles Limited, 1993)

55 Girl with the Auburn Hair Signed Pastel with coloured chalks on tinted paper 22 3⁄4 x 16 inches Literature: plate 8, page 76

56 The Blue Printed Dress Signed Pastel with coloured chalks on tinted paper 27 1⁄4 x 21 inches Literature: cover and plate 11, page 78

58 Lady with her Hair in a Bun Signed Pastel with coloured chalks 31 1⁄2 x 23 inches Literature: plate 1, page 68

59 Sitting Pretty (above right) Signed Pastel with coloured chalks 30 1⁄2 x 22 inches Literature: plate 15, page 83

60 Lady in Orange (right) Signed Pastel with coloured chalks 25 1⁄2 x 22 inches Literature: plate 2, page 69

57 The Pink Hat (opposite) Signed Pastel with coloured chalks 32 1⁄2 x 23 inches Literature: plate 10, page 78

61 The Red Hat Signed Pastel with coloured chalks and bodycolour 22 x 30 inches Literature: plate 16, page 84

62 Summer Fragrance Signed Watercolour with pastel 22 1â &#x201E;4 x 31 inches Literature: plate 46, page 115

Nos 63-67 are Provenance: The Artist’s Estate

63 Abstract 7 Watercolour and coloured chalks 5 1⁄4 x 7 1⁄4 inches

64 Abstract 10 Watercolour and coloured chalks 7 x 5 1⁄4 inches

65 Abstract 15 Watercolour, bodycolour and coloured chalks 6 1⁄4 x 4 3⁄4 inches

49 66 Abstract 11 Watercolour and coloured chalks 7 x 10 1⁄4 inches

67 Abstract 20 Bodycolour 5 1⁄4 x 7 3⁄4 inches

K EI T H GR A NT Keith Frederick Grant (born 1930) One of the greatest living British landscape painters, Keith Grant has travelled extensively, and has confronted the elements in order to produce extraordinary, resonant images of nature, especially in the north. Recently, he has preferred to recollect his experiences in the tranquility of his studio in Norway, and work imaginatively to produce an exciting series of what he calls ‘autobiographical’ paintings.

Representing Keith since 2009, the Chris Beetles Gallery held the highly successful solo show, ‘Elements of the Earth’, in 2010, and is busy preparing a major monograph on the artist for publication in the near future. For a biography of Keith Grant, please refer to Chris Beetles Summer Show, 2008, page 44-45.

A New, Imaginative Freedom of Expression: An Anthology of Extracts about ‘The Four Seasons’ from Keith Grant’s Recent Letters and Diaries

Until recently my work has been subjectively concerned with topographical imagery almost exclusively of the North. Nature has always driven the work but I was never far away from ‘the actual place’ though I persuaded myself my painting expressed much more than locality. It is only now having arrived at a new, imaginative freedom of expression that I realise how tied I have been to a rather prosaic realism. 2012 has been a year of change for me and I intend to continue this development for as long as life permits. (letter to the art critic, Andrew Lambirth, 11 September 2012) The organisation of these four compositions grew from a kind of ‘automatic’ drawing but with my mind-set of the forest. I exploited every chance suggestion of recognisable forms and through long and intense work they became the ‘plausible’ entities which comprise this new polyptych. I know that these works hark back to my first lessons in art school but also from my respect for the minutest manifestations of life. (diary entry, 29 April 2013) These paintings are a tribute to the ‘insignificants’ and by a symbolic metamorphosis of their existences to those who are grateful to them and take their being to heart. (diary entry, 28 April 2013) One symbol which is common to all four works is ‘the egg’. The image serves as a focal point in the compositions. Compatibility with each of the four seasons is a cerebral not a painterly problem but I am dogged by having to justify logically the content of each design not being capable of conveying the sense of ‘spring’ ‘summer’ ‘autumn’ and ‘winter’ except by conventional references. In all four works nothing included is species specific but the imagery is clearly of avian, botanical, animal, geological or meteorological origin or significance. (diary entry, 22 April 2013) I am guided by considering how winter differs from spring and how summer is paradoxically related to winter by the nature they possess. Autumn is like spring a season of transition in which forms unfold and flourish. The fixity of summer passes into autumn which dismantles the luxuriant inherited fullness and prepares its palette with deep reds, purples, ochres of every kind, whites and the stabbing accents of black which remains of all the colours the same throughout each of the four seasons. (letter to Andrew Lambirth, 17 March 2013) By not being species driven, by not being identifiable my forms have a power of presence as original entities the existence of which would be impossible without my life-time’s experience of wonder before the natural world. There is also as a result of dispassionate recognition of nature’s reality, a strain of a dark, and I think especially English/northern Surrealism. (diary entry, 5 April 2013)

68 The Four Seasons: Spring Signed and dated 1/2013 Oil on canvas 39 1â &#x201E;2 x 78 3â &#x201E;4 inches

There is a uniformity generally about the thrusting urgency of the forms an

the colours of spring. The essence of the painting â&#x20AC;Ś has to be in the animated design; d rhythms. (diary entry, referring to Spring, 24 April 2013)

69 The Four Seasons: Summer Signed twice and dated 4/13 twice Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 39 1⁄2 inches

70 The Four Seasons: Winter Signed and dated 3/13 Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 39 1⁄2 inches

71 The Four Seasons: Autumn Signed and dated 5/13 Oil on canvas 39 1â &#x201E;2 x 79 inches

The truth of autumn for me is in the flourishes of the falling leaves. I have t of the season and the stealthy advanc

dankness of the earth, in the fungi attached to rotting bark and in the last dancing tried to intimate the dark symbolism of the Northern forest waiting, waiting for the closure ce of the ice and snow. (diary entry, referring to Autumn, 23 April 2013)

72 The Sun. River Ure,Yorkshire Signed and dated 4/82 Watercolour, pastel and acrylic on board 47 x 45 1â &#x201E;4 inches

73 Aurora for Joanna II Red Planet with Crescent Aurora Signed and dated 8/10 Oil on canvas 35 x 45 1â &#x201E;4 inches

74 Little Persephone Signed, inscribed with title and dated 11/12 Oil and acrylic on board 12 x 25 inches

75 Persephone (Summer) Signed, inscribed with title and dated 10/12 Inscribed ‘Nest’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 45 1⁄2 x 51 1⁄4 inches

76 Metamorphoses Signed, inscribed with title and dated 12/12 Oil on board 50 x 50 inches

77 Autumn Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2012 Oil on canvas 35 1â &#x201E;2 x 51 1â &#x201E;4 inches

78 Aurora, New Moon and the Encroaching Sea Signed and dated 31.12.12 Oil on canvas 35 1⁄2 x 35 1⁄2 inches

79 The Wave from under the Aurora Signed and dated 3/13 Oil on canvas 39 1⁄2 x 47 1⁄4 inches

80 An Aurora for Carol Transfigured Night Signed and dated 4/13 Oil on canvas 41 1⁄4 x 64 inches

81 New Moon and Evening Star Signed and dated 3/13 Oil on canvas 45 1⁄4 x 49 1⁄4 inches

82 Winter Birch at the Forest’s Edge Signed and dated 5/13 Signed and inscribed with title, ‘(Painted over Birch in Autumn “Birch against the Forest”)’, ‘Birch against the Forest’, ‘Repainted 2013’ and with medium, and dated 2009 and ‘May 2013’ on stretcher Oil on canvas 32 x 39 1⁄2 inches

83 Senja Coast from Andenes, Winter ’13 Signed and dated 5/13 Oil on canvas 19 1⁄4 x 23 1⁄2 inches

84 Spring Symphony Studies from Imagination No 1 Signed and dated 5/2013 Signed and inscribed 'Sketch for "Spring Symphony'", 'B B Centenary Exhibition, Aldeburgh' and with measurements in centimetres, and dated 'May 2013' on reverse Acrylic and ink on board 6 1⁄4 x 13 inches

‘Spring Symphony. Studies from Imagination No 1 is inspired directly by the Spring Symphony of Benjamin Britten, and is dedicated to his memory in this, the centenary year of his birth. The nine following works of the series, ‘Studies from Imagination’, also relate to the expression of landscape mood in European music, and especially that of the English composers. When Peter Pears and, through him, Benjamin Britten first came to know my work it was in a style that I am now recovering after over 50 years of observing elemental nature “in the field”. A circle is beginning to close within which the more abstract the process of these new paintings becomes the more intense, I feel, will be the expression of nature’s essence and spirit. This, however, will not be through identifiable likeness but, as in music, allusions in imaginative form to her reality. It is as if shapes and rhythms appearing fortuitously during the process of painting rings a bell in my slumbering consciousness and in the production of these ten studies from imagination I have attempted to listen to its silent resonance.’ (Keith Grant)