JHBA_Newsletter2011

gallery

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An eclectic offering W

ith the start of every year I feel more confident that we have found a formula that works for our gallery in its Chelsea location. We rely on our events based calendar and catalogue publications to bring our latest acquisitions to the attention of clients. We also have had great success in meeting new clients through our attendance at fairs and increasingly through our website www.jamesharveybritishart.com. This year we will be returning to the Masterpiece fair in late June and will be exhibiting for the first time at the BADA fair in March. If any clients would like tickets for these events please let me know in advance and we will be delighted to make the arrangements.

Front cover: EDITH GUNTHER (B. 1887) The Mirror, Signed and dated 1910 Oil on canvas, Unframed: 97 x 122 cm Framed: 126 x 148 cm Opposite: RICHARD WAITT (fl.1706–1732), Full length portrait of John 20th Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, “The Gallant Earl of Crawford” (1702–1749) dressed in Hussars' uniform and holding a “brown bess” musket and standing in a highland landscape, Oil painting on canvas laid onto board, Painted circa 1725–30, Unframed: 220 x 140 cm, Framed: 241 x 157 cm

In this catalogue we have a wide variety of offerings that I hope reflect the broad and eclectic taste that is becoming the hallmark of James Harvey British Art. With the addition of the Christopher Wood gallery we are becoming much more active in the C19th and early C 20th and we now have works of art spanning from the 1680’s through to 1900.

It is interesting to note that the earliest picture in this publication the portrait by Mary Beale painted circa 1681 (illus p.20) and the most modern painting illustrated on the cover, by Edith Gunther in 1910 are both painted by female artists.

Over the past three years we have developed a very active involvement in Sporting art and this has now become one of our strongest areas of the gallery. We generally have between thirty and forty pictures of sporting subjects covering both racing and field sports. I have recently introduced a selection of prints into this category as I have found that there is great interest in this highly skilled process and afford an entry level for those wishing to start collecting. I have a very personal passion in sporting art and am delighted to have recently been asked to become a trustee of the British Sporting Art Trust.

This year we look forward to building on the success of the past two years in what we hope will be a more stable economic environment.

James Harvey

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JOSEPH FRANCIS GILBERT (1791–1855)

A view in the Lune Valley, Lancashire, from Caton looking north-east towards Gressingham, with Ingleborough Peak and the Pennines in the distance and Caton Mill in the middle ground , Oil on canvas, Unframed: 71.8 x 127 cm, Framed: 90.2 x 145.4 cm, Contained within a carved and giltwood frame Provenance: [perhaps commissioned by Thomas Eskrigge, (b. circa 1801) cotton manufacturer of Warrington, and by descent to his son]: William L. Eskrigge (b.1828), mill owner, and by descent to his son W L T Eskrigge of Stockport, Lancashire, (b.1860), Ownership inscriptions by William Eskrigge are attached to labels on the reverse of the canvas, Mason, the friend of the poet Gray, thus described the view looking east from Caton:, ‘The scene opens just 3 miles from Lancaster. To see the view in perfection you must go into a field on the left. Here Ingleborough, behind a variety of lesser mountains, makes the background of the prospect: on each hand, up the middle distance, rise two sloping hills, the left clothed with thick woods, the right with variegated rock and herbage; between them in the richest of valleys the Lune serpentines for many a mile, and comes forth ample and clear through a well-wooded and richly-pastured foreground. Every feature which constitutes a perfect landscape of the extensive sort is here not only boldly marked, but also in its best position’ (Quoted verbatim in Baines’ Lancashire, Directory volume II page 30 (1895) and Victoria County History of Lancashire (Volume 8, Lonsdale Hundred page 79)

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oseph Francis Gilbert was born in Chichester, Sussex, in December 1791, the son of a watch and precision-instrument maker. The details of his instruction as a painter are unknown, but there is a clear debt in his painting style to the works of the earlier painters George and William Smith of Chichester (to whom the present painting was at one time erroneously attributed) and William Pether, who were all landscape painters working in Chichester.

He began exhibiting paintings at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and the Society of Artists from 1813. His work essentially continues the Georgian Romantic topographic tradition, with an emphasis on the “sublime” and “picturesque”. Towards the end of his career, his style became rather more “homely” and early Victorian.

Gilbert seems to have painted a series of views of Lancashire and the Lake District, all of which are of virtually identical size (some 30 x 50 inches). These presumably originate from a trip to the Lakes sometime around 1820, and the drawings from that trip were re-used in his studio over a period of up to 15 years (the Abbot Hall "Ullswater" is actually dated 1834; an inscription on the reverse of the original canvas shows that it was painted in Chichester in that year).

The Eskrigge family were minor yeomen living in North Lancashire in the 16th century; their surname is a toponym from the hamlet of the same name which is close by the village of Gressingham. Like many ambitious families, they were involved in the burgeoning cotton industry towards the end of the 18th century, when they moved south to Warrington, where two generations of cotton manufacturers (both called Thomas) worked. As the importance of Manchester grew during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, members of the family moved to Stockport, just outside Manchester where they developed a large cotton-spinning business, which, as the 1861 Census notes, employed 2,341 people. This mill was run by William Eskrigge, Alderman and Justice of the Peace, the first certainly recorded owner of this painting, who had been born in Warrington in 1828. Eskrigge enjoyed a certain notoriety as an employer, to the extent that he is held up as an example of the ‘wicked capitalist’

in Karl Marx's Das Kapital. It appears that he largely ignored the new laws passed by Parliament to limit the amount of child labour in factories. He was on the Bench as a JP when one of his colleagues (who was possibly no more than a stooge for his own factory) was charged with failing to observe the strictures of the act limiting the hours that children were allowed to work.

The members of the bench, all cotton-spinners and mill-owners inevitably found that there was no case to answer, and the charges were dismissed.

It is notable that the present painting includes a view of Caton Mill in the Lune valley. This mill was functioning by 1808, and belonged to Isaac Hodgson, who employed 150 people there, 70 of whom were his “apprentices” who were wholly maintained by him. The remainder were men, women and children on weekly wages. Of the 70 apprentices, 30 were under fourteen years of age, and were maintained at an average cost of two shillings and eight pence per head; the total cost of their board and lodging (including a prayer and sermon in house on Sundays) amounted to £1001–3s–4d per annum. The author of A History of Lancashire writing a few years later in 1825 (about the date of the present painting) considered this a good arrangement, and noted that the children “have a remarkably healthy appearance”, though he notes that under Mr Greg, who bought the Mill in 1815, “the apprentices are now paid weekly wages for their maintenance and live with their parents.” Doubtless this “wage slavery” saved money, an economy which would have appealed to the careful Messrs. Eskrigge.

The old hamlet of Eskrigge lies at Gressingham, which is about six miles from the viewpoint of the present painting, just by the bend in the river. It seems inevitable that this is the reason for Eskrigge's owning the picture, melding as it does a view of the most beautiful part of their home county with a prospect of the village from which they derived their surname, and with the view of a cotton mill of a type which was the source of their considerable fortune. William Eskrigge's views on the activities of his niece Edith Eskrigge (1872–1948), leading Suffragette, political radical and social worker, can only be imagined.

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ABRAHAM PETHER (1756–1812), A view near Stroud in Sussex, Oil painting on canvas, 71 x 91 cm, contained in a fine original Georgian carved and gilded frame (88 x 110 cm framed), Signed and dated 1788 Exhibited: Royal Academy 1788, number 422 as “A view near Stroud in Sussex” Provenance: Private Collection, Devon

BRITISH OR IRISH SCHOOL (c.1760) A country landscape with folly, Oil on canvas Framed: 48 x 67 cm Unframed: 62 x 79 cm An attribution to the Irish landscape painter John Butts has been plausibly suggested.

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MATHER BROWN (1761–1831) Head and shoulders portrait sketch of John Williams (a.k.a. Anthony Pasquin, “The Irish Vasari”), Oil painting on canvas, Unframed: 43 x 34.4 cm, Framed: 64 x 54 cm, In a good carved and giltwood frame (see p.8) Provenance: The Reverend William Dacy, by whom given to the Reverend T.J. Judkin, 1890; John Lane, New York [Possibly B.W.F. van Riemsdijk, Director of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, from 1897 to 1920, as attributed to Gilbert Stuart]; Sale: Christie’s, South Kensington, April 29, 1985, lot 59; Thomas Agnews & Sons Ltd., London; Acquired from the above by a private collector, USA, from whose agent acquired by us.

Literature: Dorinda Evans, Mather Brown, 1982, p. 221, Catalogue raisonné no. 140 (as whereabouts unknown). The author dates the painting circa 1790 and notes the sitter’s name as a pseudonym for John Williams, Charles R. Hart “Thomas Dawson, Viscount Cremorne, painted by Mather Brown” (Art in America, no. 5 (October 1917) p.310), where stated to be in the collection of B.W.F.Riemsijk, Engraved:(i) in stipple by E.Scott, published by Collings and Clearson; (1790), copy of the above with painter not credited, by Francis Bartolozzi (Undated)

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ohn Williams [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754–1818), satirist and historian of Irish art, was born on 26 January 1754 in London. He was educated between 1762 and 1768 at Merchant Taylors' School, where he wrote his earliest verses (satirical Latin and sentimental English) and was much influenced by the headmaster, James Townley, friend of Garrick and associate of Hogarth.

Williams then studied engraving under the engraver and caricaturist Matthew Darly in the Strand before entering himself as a student in the Royal Academy Schools on 6 December 1773. In 1786 Williams adopted the pen-name Anthony Pasquin and published his first extended satires on actors. It is, however, his Authentic History (1796) of the artists of Ireland on which his modern reputation is founded, as it is the essential biographical source for its subjects, many of whose lives and works are otherwise unmemorialised. Strickland, whose Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), which remains the Standard reference on the subject, relies throughout on information gleaned from the pages of Pasquin's Authentic History. His writings on politics and art alike appeared under the name of Anthony Pasquin. Several of his books were illustrated with frontispieces and vignettes drawn and/or engraved by him.

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ather Brown (christened October 11, 1761–May 25, 1831) was a portrait and historical painter, born in Boston, Massachusetts but active in England.

Brown was the son of Gawen and Elizabeth (Byles) Brown, and descended from the Rev. Increase Mather on his mother's side. He was taught by his aunt and around 1773 (age 12) became a pupil of Gilbert Stuart. He arrived in London in 1781 to further his training in Benjamin West's studio, entered the Royal Academy schools in 1782 with plans to be a miniature painter, and began to exhibit a year later.

In 1784 he painted two religious paintings for the church of St Mary’s-in-theStrand, which led Brown to found a partnership with the painter Daniel Orme for the commercialization of these and other works through exhibition and the sale of engravings. Among these were large paintings of scenes from English history, as well as scenes from Shakespeare's plays. However, despite their success he began to concentrate on portraiture. His first successes were with American sitters, among others his patron John Adams and family in 1784–85; this painting is now in the Boston Athenaeum. In 1785–86 he painted the first portrait of Thomas Jefferson, who was visiting London. He also painted Sir William Pepperrell.

His 1788 full-length portrait of Prince Frederick Augustus in the uniform of Colonel of the Coldstream Guards led to his appointment as History and Portrait Painter to the Prince, later the Duke of York and Albany. Other paintings include the Prince of Wales, later George IV (about 1789), Queen Charlotte, and Cornwallis. A self-portrait now belongs to the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts.

The present painting, with its confident impressionistic brushwork is amongst the most direct and successful works by the artist, and dates from the highwater mark of his career in the years that followed his commission (1786) to paint Thomas Jefferson and appointment to the honorific titles of Portrait Painter to the Duke of York (1789) and to the Duke of Clarence (1791)

Opposite: JOHN MANSFIELD CREALOCK (1871–1959) The Yellow Sofa, Oil on canvas, Unframed: 130.8 x 97.2 cm, Framed: 153 x 119.4 cm, Signed and dated 'John Crealock 1912' (lower right) and further signed and dated 'John Crealock/1912' (on the reverse). signed, inscribed and dated 'R.H.A. Dublin 1914/no.1 'The Yellow Sofa'/John Crealock/24 Beaufort Mansions/Chelsea' (on an old label on the reverse) Provenance: with Dicksee ad Co., Liverpool, 1912, Private Collection, UK. Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1912, no. 98, Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1914, no. 1

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Top left: GEORGE OWEN WYNNE APPERLEY (1884–1960) Self Portrait, Signed and inscribed 'Painted by himself at Bushey in the year AD 1915. His age 31', Watercolour and bodycolour, Unframed: 53.3 x 41.9 cm, Framed: 78.7 x 66 cm Provenance: Private Collection, UK Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1916, no. 1000.

Below left: DORIS ZINKEISEN (1898–1991) Portrait of Mrs Sanders Watney, Oil on canvas Unframed: 106.7 x 86.4 cm, Framed: 125.7 x 104.7 cm Signed and dated 1937 Exhibited: London, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, November 18th–December 7th 1937, no. 141

Opposite: JACOB THOMPSON (1806–1879), Small three-quarter length portrait, sitting in a green leather armchair by a table, of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale (1757– 1844), Oil painting on Roberson's artists' panel, Unframed: 44.5 x 34 cm, Framed: 61 x 48 cm, Signed lower right corner, “Jacob Thompson”, and again signed and inscribed on a label on the reverse “Portrait of the late Earl of Lonsdale. Jacob Thompson, The Hermitage, Hackthorpe, Penrith and 104 High Street, Marylebone, London” Provenance: [unidentified sale lot 29: a copy of the catalogue entry is attached to the reverse], Sotheby’s 10th February 1960 (lot 96) bought by Agnew's and subsequently sold to John Davies Esq., on the 12th September 1960. (Agnew's stock label number 20962 attached)

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ARTHUR DEVIS (1712–1787) A conversation piece of The Cross family in the park of Shudycamps Hall, Cambridgeshire, Signed and dated 175(9) lower right, Oil on canvas, Unframed: 100 x 125 cm, and contained in a superb contemporary mid-Georgian carved, pierced and gilded frame (frame size 127 x 152 cm) Provenance: By family descent from the sitters with Arthur Tooth and Company, 1948; private collection of a nobleman, London until 2010 Literature: Sydney H. Paviere, 'The Devis Family of Painters”, 1950, p. 40, Catalogue No. 28. and illustrated as plate 29, as “The Cross family of Shudy Camp Park, Cambridgeshire”, “Polite Society: Portraits of the English Country Gentleman and his Family by Arthur Devis”: Catalogue of the exhibition at the Harris Art Gallery, Preston, and the National Portrait Gallery, page 61 as “The Cross Family, of Shudy Camps Park, Cambridgeshire”, Ellen G. D'Oench, 'Arthur Devis 1712–1787, Master of the Georgian Conversation Piece', Yale University, Ph.D dissertation, 1979, Ellen G. D'Oench, 'The Conversation Piece: Arthur Devis and his Contemporaries', 1980, p.82, catalogue no.42 as “The Cross Family, of Shudy Camps Park, Cambridgeshire”

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rthur Devis was a leading figure of the group of English artists who painted smallscale intimate portraits and conversation pieces in the eighteenth century. His highly finished and technically accomplished paintings are redolent of a refined Georgian age and each portrait sets its sitter in his or her social context. In the late 1730's, as Devis' portrait practice expanded, he moved from his native Preston in Lancashire to work and settle in London and was well established there by 1742. Appreciated and sought after by his largely upper middle-class sitters, Devis also achieved respect and recognition in the artists' community in London. He exhibited at the Free Society of Artists between 1761 and 1780 and became its President in 1768.

Devis' career blossomed through the 1740's and, as well as his conversation pieces, he specialised in small-scale portraits of single figures. These sitters were both 'New Men' of the Georgian age who had made their fortunes through commerce, trade or banking; and the prosperous gentry in their country house settings. Devis' portraits are distinctive with his very clean and neat style. His observations on posture and property make his work a remarkable record of mid-eighteenth century genteel life and he serves as an astute commentator of his time.

The present painting illustrates the Beau Idéal of life for the burgeoning Tory Squirearchy of mid-Georgian England, with the head of the household presenting a partridge to his admiring wife, whilst the young male heir (he is not yet in breeches, but has the short hair of a boy) holds centre stage. He thus demonstrates his acceptance of the country pursuits as practised by the Whig Grandees he imitates (with its necessary qualification of owning freehold land under the onerous Game Laws), his dedication to family and continuity, and his role as a man of consequence in the County with a grand house in the peaceful landscape. His dog, symbol of good faith, looks admiringly on. The message of the painting, then, is one of justifiable pride in the protagonist's social achievements: not for him the pompous flummery of Reynolds' painted aristocrats, but rather a quiet satisfaction and an acceptance of the status quo and his role in it. This is the triumph of the new mercantile upper-middle class.

Shudycamps Hall in Cambridgeshire was built by Sir Marmaduke Dayrell, and still stands, though much altered over the years

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ENGLISH SCHOOL circa 1855 Four views of the Crimean Peninsula: Top left: View looking south down the Western side of the Crimean Peninsula from Eupatoria towards Sevastopol Top right: View looking north towards Sevastopol from Balaklava Bottom left: View looking north-west from the heights behind Sevastopol, with Inkerman in the far distance to the East Bottom right: View of across the great harbour towards Sevastopol, looking from Severnaya on the north side Each oil painting on canvas Unframed: 98 x 132 cm, Framed: 113 x 151 cm

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his extraordinary set of topographical views date from the period 1853–56 during the Crimean War, as evidenced by the presence of various soldiers in uniforms of the allied participants (English, Turkish and French) and the presence of defence works and artillery positions.

The tradition of the “bird's-eye view” is a long one in English art, and can be traced back to various maps produced in the sixteenth century, but is perhaps best known in the numerous views of gentlemen's estates and houses in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It seems likely that the artist of the present set of paintings had been trained in military topography: most officers in the English army and navy received training in perspective drawing and topography as part of their general training. Some of their teachers

were distinguished artists: John Christian Schetky (1778–1874), for instance, was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Military College (then at Marlow) and afterwards at the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth, where he continued for 25 years. He was Official Marine painter to Kings George IV and William IV and to Queen Victoria.

Many officers, then, were accomplished amateur draughtsmen, whose work was usually executed in watercolour. It seems likely that the present paintings were executed from such on-the-spot drawings when back in the studio. The “elevated perspective” was raised to a high standard in the Crimea by such practitioners of the art as William Simpson (1823– 1899) and Thomas Packer (d.1907) who published a series of lithographs of “The War in the East”.

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George Barret, Sen., R.A. (Dublin 1732–1784 London), Ferrying animals across the lake at Windermere; and Figures sitting outside a farmstead (both illustrated), The second with inscription 'Drawing in Distemper by La Porte from the sale of the late Rev.d Ed. Monro, of St John's Leeds. March 1867' (on a label attached to the backing), Bodycolour, on paper, A pair, Framed: 28 x 37 cm Unframed: 18 x 26 cm

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BEN MARSHALL (1767–1835) Captain Barrington Price with his favourite hunter outside Beckett House, Shrivenham, Berkshire, with his brother Major Price on the portico; a groom holding "Sailor" beyond, Oil painting on canvas Unframed: 102 x 127 cm, Framed: 121 x 145 cm, signed and dated 1804, and contained in a fine Georgian carved and gilt frame Provenance: By descent to T. Price esq until 1893; Sir Walter Gilbey (his sale, “Removed from Cambridge House, Regent's Park”, Christies, 12.3.1910, lot 114, bought Agnew for £73.10s); Percy Pyne esq., of Long Island by 1933, and thence by descent until 1996; with Lane Fine Art, London by whom sold to private collector in London Literature: Listed in Aubrey Noakes' "Ben Marshall" (Leigh on Sea 1978) number 69 page 36. Painted in 1804 according to Noakes and Gilbey

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enjamin Marshall was born at Seagrave in Leicestershire.

He worked initially as a schoolmaster, and seems not to have taken up painting until about 1790. He was introduced in the following year to William Pochin Esq., the local member of parliament, who in turn introduced him to his first Master, the portrait painter Lemuel Francis Abbot.

Marshall's progress was rapid, and by the middle of the 1790's he was being patronised by HRH The Prince of Wales.

Marshall was at his artistic peak in the years 1798 to 1810, and the paintings produced from his brush during this period rank with the very greatest works of the English School of animal painting. The present painting is entirely typical of his dramatic use of local colour and vivid drawing.

The present Shrivenham House, built 1831, still stands and is today the campus of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, which is a military and academic community providing postgraduate education in strategy, leadership, management and the application of technology to defence.

It is part of Cranfield University.

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Caption to go here

Above: JOHN FREDERICK HERRING SNR (1795–1865) Two gentlemen on horses in landscape Oil on canvas, Signed and dated 1826 Unframed: 71 x 91.5 cm, Framed: 87 x 108 cm

Opposite: CHARLES B. SPALDING (1810–1871) Pair of pig sticking paintings, Oil on canvas Unframed: 30 x 44 cm, Framed: 39 x 52 cm

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MARY BEALE (1633–1699) Three quarter length portrait of the artist's husband Charles Beale (1632–1705) Oil painting on a herring-bone twill canvas Unframed: 125 x 100 cm, Framed: 150 x 126 cm Painted circa 1681

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n 8 March 1652 Mary Cradock married Charles Beale (bap. 1631, d. 1705), member of a puritan family at Walton Manor, Buckinghamshire.

The couple took up residence at Covent Garden, London, later moving to Hind Court, Fleet Street, when Charles succeeded to his father's post of deputy clerk of the patents office about 1660. By this date Mary Beale had not only given birth to two sons, Bartholomew and Charles but had already gained some reputation as an artist: she was mentioned together with three other female painters in Sir William Sanderson's Graphice … or, The most Excellent Art of Painting (1658). One of her earliest extant works is the Self Portrait with Husband and Son (c.1663; Geffrye Museum, London). Her early influences seem to have included Robert Walker, the Commonwealth portraitist, and the miniaturist Thomas Flatman.

By 1664 Charles Beale's job had become insecure, and, with the plague threatening, the family departed for Albrook (now Allbrook), Otterbourne, Hampshire.

While there, Mary wrote the ‘Essay on friendship’ (BL, Harleian MS 6828, fols. 510–23) in which she propounds the somewhat radical notion (for the period) of equality between men and women, both in friendship and marriage. Her philosophy was put into practice when, upon their return to the city in 1670, it was decided that she would establish herself as a professional artist; accordingly, she set up a studio in their rented house in Pall Mall. Few women were

employed as artists in this period, and her career could only have been undertaken with her husband's encouragement.

She soon attracted a wide clientele from among the gentry and aristocracy, and from their own distinguished circle of friends, who included fellows of the Royal Society and puritan clergy, notably the future bishops Stillingfleet and Tillotson. Her prices were competitive: £10 for a three-quarter-length and £5 for a half-length portrait. Typical canvases feature warm brown colour tones and a feigned stone cartouche, both of which are apparent in the portrait of Jane, Lady Twisden (1677; Manor House Museum, Bury St Edmunds). Mary Beale's sons assisted her with the painting of draperies and later she was able to train and employ female studio assistants.

The present painting painted circa 1681 is previously unpublished and seems to be painted on an identical type of canvas to that of the portrait of Charles Beale Jnr., and the pensive and introspective, albeit affectionate, nature of the two compositions suggests strongly that they were painted at about the same time and perhaps contemporaneously. The informality of the pose is strikingly intimate, and the muted lighting and sombre earth tones suggest a distant echo of Rembrandt, whose pupil Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723) had arrived in England in 1676 and who was to take on the mantle of Sir Peter Lely as the leading portraitist in England after the latter's death in London 1680.

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Above: W J SHORT (fl 1836 – 1845), An interior with three little girls in brown dresses and a little boy in a white pinafore, one playing at a square piano, two winding wool and the latter playing with his king charles spaniel, Oil on canvas, Signed and dated 1852 , Unframed: 70 x 90 cm, Framed: 96 x 115 cm Opposite top: JAMES HAYLLAR (1829–1920), Mabel's Pensions, Oil on canvas, Signed and dated 1884, Framed: 128 x 177 cm, Unframed: 103 x 153 cm, Exhibited Royal Academy, 1884 No 8.4 Opposite Bottom: ANTONIO MARIA ASPETTATI (1880 – 1949 ) The Sala Dell'iliade In The Galleria Palatine At The Pitti Palace, Signed 'A.M. Aspettati' on the lower left side and inscribed 'A.M. Aspettati Viale Milton 31 Firenze', Oil on canvas, Unframed: 115 x 150cm, Framed: 100 x 134 cm Exhibition: National Association of Artists, Piazza Pitti 14, Florence, Italy, according to an old label verso

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FRANCIS WHEATLEY RA (1747–1801) A view of Glen Molaur in County Kilkenny with figures resting by a stream, Oil painting on canvas Unframed: 21.5 x 30 cm, Framed: 30 x 39 cm In a giltwood frame Provenance: Sir Hugh Sealy, Bart, Brook House, Isle of Wight. His sale, Christies 16th May 1930 (lot 57) as “Potter” (= Paulus Potter (!)) “A river scene with cattle on the bank and figures bathing Literature: William Roberts “Francis Wheatley: his life and works, with a catalogue of his engraved pictures”, London 1910, page 49, Mary Webster “Francis Wheatley” (London: Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art / Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970) page 162, number E25 Engraved: Thomas Malton “Select views from the seats of the nobility and gentry in the Kingdom of Ireland” (1793) engraved and dedicated to Samuel Hayes.

The picture was presumably painted during or immediately after Wheatley’s visit to Tipperary in February–April 1781; he was at Glen Molaur on 1st March where he sketched a number of drawings in watercolour and pencil.

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rancis Wheatley was born in London in 1747, and died in the same city in 1801. He was initially self-taught, but was subsequently trained at Shipley’s Academy; he won Prizes for drawing at the Society of Artists in 1762–3, and was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools aged 22 in 1769.

He worked as an assistant to the Royal Academist John Hamilton Mortimer in painting the Saloon ceiling at Brocket Hall in 1771–1773, and always acknowledged the profound debt he owed to his distinguished teacher. He exhibited pictures himself at the Society of Artists from 1765–1777, and was made a Director thereof in 1783. From 1778 onwards he exhibited regularly at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy, being made as Associate (ARA) in 1790 and a full member (RA) the following year.

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Comparative Picture Thomas Milton after Wheatley Glen Molaur, from Milton’s Select Views

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heatley seems to have been incompetent with money, and was frequently in debt, despite numerous commissions. He moved from London to Dublin to escape his debtors. His masterpiece of these years is the remarkable The Irish House of Commons, 1780, now in the City Art Gallery, Leeds, which depicts a vast series of faithful portraits of all the Members of Parliament in Dublin. Wheatley was at the height of his powers during his years in Ireland, and the types of painting he undertook were numerous.

The present picture is one of a series of delightful and fresh topographical landscapes which were later engraved by Thomas Milton for his book of Irish views (see above); another example, from the collection of the Knight of Glin, was recently sold at Christies.

Wheatley was a versatile painter, executing straightforward portraits, conversation pieces, domestic and sentimental genre paintings and theatrical illustrations. He seems to have taken a particular interest in the depiction of rural life from the 1780’s onwards, and executed such pictures as “The Industrious Cottager”; “The return from Market”; “The return from Shooting”; “Haymaking: a view near a wood”; “The Harvest Home”; “A Harvest Dinner” and “Evening, a Farmyard”. The onset of the Napoleonic Wars, and the consequent collapse in demand for art, added to his

financial problems, and he was ultimately forced into the Debtors’ Prison of The King’s Bench. By the time of his death at the age of 54, he was an emaciated and wasted figure, incapable of caring for his wife and family of four children. His widow was granted a pension by the Academists until her own demise.

“Wheatley’s life is strictly that of a hard working professional artist……….” (Webster, p.113). “He was a handsome man, of elegant manners, and generally a favourite in genteel company. He understood his art, and spoke with taste and precision on every branch of it” (A Chalmers, Biographical Dictionary, 1817). He was “A very personable man, fond of dress, and polite in his manners, which makes him a great favourite with the ladies”. (Obituary, Gentleman’s Magazine 1801, p.857). All his contemporaries agreed, though, that his “habits of expense became too unbounded for his means” (Gandon, Life 1846, pp.207) Wheatley at his best shows a remarkably fluidity and freedom of expression in his oil paintings, though his drawings are much more tightly controlled. Along with George Morland, he is the most accomplished English painter of the Rural Scene of his date; his range, though, is much wider than that of Morland, and some of his conversation pieces, for instance, rank with those of his friend and fellow-academist Johann Zoffany.

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WILLIAM CAPON (Norwich 1757–1827 Westminster), A view of Morris Marsault's residence, Richmond Green, Oil on canvas, Unframed: 63.5 x 76.3 cm, Framed: 80 x 94 cm In a carved and gilded Maratta frame Exhibited: RA 1817 (514)

JAMES LAMBERT OF LEWIS (1725–1788) View of Michelgrove, Sussex, Pencil, pen and black ink and watercolour, on paper signed and dated 'Jas. Lambert Delt. 1782' Inscribed 'MICHELGROVE Sufsex [sic.] The Seat of the Rt. Hon.l Sr. John Shelley Bart.' (lower centre), Unframed: 31 x 44 cm Framed: 46.5 x 58 cm

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JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW (1836–1893), Near Lake Windermere, the Lake District, Cumbria, Signed and dated 1865, also inscribed on reverse, Oil on panel, Unframed: 39.5 x 51 cm, Framed: 61 x 71 cm Provenance: Christopher Wood Gallery, 1981,Private Collection, USA

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BENJAMIN WILLIAM LEADER, RA (1831–1925), Bransford Bridge, Worcestershire, Signed lower left, Oil on canvas, Unframed: 36.2 x 52.1 cm, Framed: 59.7 x 74.3 cm, Inscribed, ‘”Bransford Bridge,/Worcestershire.”/B.W. Leader. R.A.’ (on an old label on the reverse) Provenance: Possibly purchased from the artist by Hawkins, May 1872 (£70); With Henry J. Mullen, Ltd., Harrogate, Private Collection, UK Literature: The artist’s own records, 1872

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PHILIP REINAGLE R.A. (1749–1833) “Pero son of Pluto” - a pointer, the property of Colonel Thornton on the point over a Mallard duck, a Mallard drake taking off beyond, Oil painting on canvas, 39 x 53 cm and contained in a carved and gilded frame, Inscribed on the lining, presumably copied from the back of the original canvas, “Pero son of Pluto/ Painted at Thornville Royal / By Reinagle / For Col. Thornton / Reinagle Senr.”, Painted circa 1795

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homas Thornton (1757–1823), self-styled Prince of Chambord and Marquess de Pont, is famous for being one of the most dedicated and flamboyant sportsmen of the 18th and 19th centuries, dividing his time between hunting, racing, shooting, angling and hawking. In the shooting field he was certainly the best equipped - in his words he had 'a greater quantity of sporting apparatus of the most valuable and curious manufacture than any other sporting gentleman in England' - and he favoured air weapons and multibarrelled guns and rifles, including examples with seven, twelve and fourteen barrels (the last preserved in the Arms Museum, Liège, no. Ael/5866). He was something of a legend in his own time, as well known as a bon viveur as he was as a sportsman and collector.

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T

hornton inherited Thornville Royal estate in Yorkshire, but his exuberant lifestyle, which involved keeping two London houses as well as his country seat, taxed his finances and he was eventually forced to sell his estates. Contemporary records chart the progress south of his considerable belongings and retinue after the sale of the Yorkshire property: this included grooms, huntsmen, falconers, kennelhands and servants, travelling by horse and attended by hounds, following a chain of wagons containing his prize animals. In addition to the live cargo was 'a fantastic arsenal of sporting weapons drawn by Arab mares of the King's stud. The procession was completed by several wagon-loads of wine.'

Thornton was a Lieutenant Colonel in the West York Militia, a regiment that had been both financed and commanded by his father before him. In 1794 a dispute arose at Roborough Camp, near Plymouth, between Colonel Thornton and some of his officers. This was to lead to Thornton's court-martial and subsequent resignation as described in his pamphlet entitled An Elucidation of a Mutinous Conspiracy entered into by the officers of the West York Regiment of Militia against their Commanding Officer in year 1794.

Following the sale of his estates Thornton leased Spye Park in Wiltshire in 1805 from the Bayntun family. He wanted to replace the Bayntun family portraits with sporting paintings of his own, and commissioned a number of large-scale works from the best sporting artists of the day such as Reinagle, Gilpin and Henry Bernard Chalon. Reinagle is known to have painted a portrait of him holding a hawk, as well as portraying his spaniels, and Gilpin exhibited A foxhound in the possession of Col. Thornton at the Royal Academy in 1786, and in 1792 a horse portrait entitled Jupiter, the

property of Col. Thornton. This last work, measuring an imposing 134 x 175cm, came to auction in London in 2009 when it realised just over £100,000.

Thornton is also famous for his succession of mistresses, the first being Alicia Meynell or Massingham known as the 'Norwich Nymph' and famous in her own right for her horse race against Captain Flint at York racecourse in 1804, and again in 1805 on the Knavesmire when she beat Edward Buckle the crack jockey of his day. Thornton moved to France during the second decade of the 19th century and in 1819–20 his very substantial art collection – which included works by significant Old Masters – was auctioned off to settle his debts.

Philip Reinagle was born in Edinburgh in 1749, the son of a Hungarian musician, his early career was as a portrait painter. He entered the Royal Academy schools in 1769 and in the 1770's was assistant to Allan Ramsay in his studio for the repetition of royal portraits of King George and Queen Caroline.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1773 to 1827. The present painting dates from the last years of the 18th century, when Reinagle was engaged in painting a series of canine portraits for various patrons (including the Thorold and Thornton families), before embarking in about 1802 on the large series of the various breeds of dogs of the British Isles which he painted as models for the engravings of the same in the “Sportsman’s Cabinet”, a periodical which for a time was a great rival to the ubiquitous “Sporting Magazine”. The picture exhibits the free brushwork and broad treatment allied with vibrant colour which is the hallmark of the artist in his prime.

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ENGLISH SCHOOL (19th Century), A Collection of Watercolours of Snipe and Woodcock (15) Fifteen studies of snipe and woodcock including: A noble snipe; A jack snipe; A Peruvian snipe (recto) and study of plumage (verso); A Japanese snipe; A solitary snipe; An American woodcock (recto) and study of a snipe (verso); A Sabine snipe; A Himalayan snipe; A giant snipe; A Wilson snipe; and South American, Canadian and New Zealand snipe (5), one (recto) and (verso) All extensively inscribed in English and Latin, some inscribed with measurements, habitats and the names of the sportsmen who shot them, Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, on paper.

Unframed: 16 x 23 cm Framed: 35 x 41.5 cm

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GEORGE SMITH OF CHICHESTER (1714–1776), A wooded landscape with a country house, classical ruins on a distant hill, and three travellers resting in the foreground, Oil painting on canvas, 61 x 97 cm, in a fine carved and gilded frame, 82 x 113 cm, Signed lower left corner Geo. Smith Provenance: In the collection of Thomas Viscount Anson of Shugborough (later, 1892, 3rd Earl of Lichfield, 1856–1918) before 1874. There is a dated ownership inscription on the rear of the original canvas.

Literature: cf, The Smith Brothers of Chichester (Exhibition Catalogue, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 1986, passim)

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THOMAS STRINGER of Knutsford (1711–1790), Mr Heron of Daresbury galloping on his bay hunter exercising hounds, Oil painting on canvas 63 x 90 cm and contained in its original carved and gilded Georgian frame Provenance: Commissioned by George Heron of Daresbury Hall, Cheshire and by descent to Lieutenant-General Peter Heron (1770–1849) of Moor Hall, Cheshire; his widow, and then by descent to her great-niece Cecilia Widdrington (nee Gregge-Hepwood), wife of Shalcross FitzHerbert Widdrington, and thence by descent Capt. Francis Newton Heron Widdrington (1920–2008), The present painting is one of a group of at least four pictures commissioned from the artist by the Heron family in and about 1776

THOMAS STRINGER (1711–1790), Grey Horse with Groom and Hound, Oil on Canvas, Unframed: 62 x 87 cm, Framed: 71 x 95 cm

THOMAS STRINGER (1711–1790), Bay Horse and Groom, Signed, Oil on canvas, Unframed: 62 x 87 cm, Framed: 71 x 95 cm

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DUTCH SCHOOL, early 17th century, Friesland painter in the circle of Adriaen van den Linde, Portrait of a little girl standing in an interior dressed in a richly embroidered dress with white lawn pinafore and open lace collar; her head-dress is in white lace with a large white feather.

She stands by a table with a red tablecloth with some sweetmeats by her left hand, and a bunch of roses in her right hand.

Around her waist is a chatelaine with a gold rope-work belt from which hang a pair of gilt scissors, a scraper and a pomander; her shoes are red-brown, Oil painting on canvas, 95 x 62 cm and contained in a bolection moulded black frame with gilt sight-edge, overall size 108 x 75 cm

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JOHN DOWNMAN (1750–1824), And the Angel of the Lord said unto Hagar, Behold, thou art with child, Oil on panel, Unframed: 64.4 x 51.6 cm, Framed: 87 x 68 cm, Inscribed in Hebrew with the name of the well lower right Becrlahai-roi Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1796, no. 127 Provenance: Private collection Exeter, until 2007. Downman worked in Exeter 1807-08, and married the daughter of Exeter Cathedral’s organist

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THOMAS WHITCOMBE, 1753 – c.1824, A navy yacht flying the white ensign coming up to harbour in the Downs; a French frigate at anchor beyond; a rain shower approaching, Oil on canvas, 41 x 95 cm

ANGLO DUTCH SCHOOL, late C17th, An English 1st-rate ship of the Red Squadron flying the senior ensign of the Royal Navy approached by officers in rowing boats and surrounded by other shipping. On the left is Dutch smalschip flying the flag of the Port of Goes in Zeeland is to the left , Oil on canvas 40 x 60 cm, An attribution to Isaac Sailmaker has been plausible proposed.

Top left: GEORGE SAMUEL ELGOOD (1851– 1943), Gardens, Ramscliffe, Signed and dated 1909 pencil and watercolour Framed: 43 x 36 cm, Unframed: 23 x 18 cm

Top right: MARTIN THEODORE WARD (1799–1874), A black and tan terrier with a rabbit, Oil painting on canvas, Unframed: 15 x 21.5 cm, Framed: 25 x 31 cm Signed lower right corner

Right: BEATRICE PARSONS (1869 – 1955) A Cornish Garden Falmouth, Signed, inscribed and numbered on reverse of mount '4/ cornish garden/ Falmouth'watercolour, Framed: 63 x 51 cm Unframed: 40 x 30 cm Provenance: Hamilton Houldsworth, and the by bequest to Mora Fox 5th Dec 1941

CIRCLE OF JAMES HAYLLAR (1829-1920) Portrait of the Coleridge Daughters, Audrey Jane and Phyllis Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 141 cm

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