1998 Mallett Gallery Catalogue

Page 1



MALLET T Established 1865


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MALLET T Gallery

141 New Bond Street, London W I Y OBS Telephone: 0171 499 7411 Fax: 0171 495 3179


Mallett Gallery 141 New Bond Street London W I Y OBS Telephone: 0171 499 7411 Fax: 0171 495 3179 James Harvey Gallery Manager

Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd 141 New Bond Street London W I Y OBS Telephone: 0171 499 7411 Fax: 0171 495 3179 DIRECTORS

I.anto Syngc Chief Executive The Hon Peter Dixon Paula H u n t Giles Hutchinson Smith

Mallett at Bourdon House Ltd 2 Davies Street London W I Y ILJ Telephone: 0171 629 2444 Fax: 0171 499 2670 DIRECTORS

Lanto Synge T h e H o n Peter Dixon Paula Hunt T h o m a s Woodham-Smith Henry Neville Mallett Website: http://www.mallett.co.uk E-mail: Antiques@mallett.co.uk

Front and back cover: Tilly Ketde (1735-1786) Portrait of Major-General Ilorton Briscoe Page 6 Frontispiece: Dominic Serres (1722-1793) The Royal Review of the Fleet (detail) Page 44

Š Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd 1998 Designed by T h e o Hodges Business Design Consultants Printed by Saunders and Williams


Foreworc T h e Mallett Gallery has enjoyed an exciting year, with many interesting new acquisitions and much success exhibiting at the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair in June, and the International Fine Art Fair in New York in M a y We were delighted to lend the portrait of Katie Lewis by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones to the centenary exhibition Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian Artist-Dreamer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. T h e exhibition is transferring to England, to the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (17th October 1998-17th J a n u a r y 1999) and finishes in Paris, at the Musee d'Orsay (1st March 1 9 9 9 - 6 t h j u n e 1999). O u r work with museums has been flourishing, with the com ersation piece by Gawen Hamilton illustrated on the front of our catalogue last year still the subject of intense fund raising by a national institution. T h e superb set of three portraits by Joseph Wright of Derby, featured here on pages 8 - 1 4 , are currently being considered for purchase by the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, where they have recently been exhibited. T h e front cover of this catalogue illustrates another magnificent portrait, of Major-General Horton Briscoe, by Tilly Ketde. Ketde arrived in India in 1768 and this work is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular images painted in India in the 18th century. We have not sought to deal exclusively in portraits, however, and this catalogue includes both fantasy landscapes and detailed topographical works, a fine marine painting by Dominic Serres and a magnificent large-scale paindng of a grey stallion by J o h n Wootton which is thought to have been commissioned by Charles, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, for Langley Park in Buckinghamshire. We hope you will enjoy looking at this combined catalogue of oil paintings and watercolours, and hope that you have the opportunity to visit us here at the gallery in London, or at the International l i n e Art Fair at the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York in October.

James Harvey Gallery Manager


Mallett Gallery 141 N e w B o n d Street L o n d o n W I Y OBS Telephone: 0171 499 7411 Fax: 0171 495 3179 J a m e s Harvey Gallery Manager

Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd 141 N e w Bond Street L o n d o n W I Y OBS Telephone: 0171 499 7411 Fax: 0171 495 3179 DIRECTORS L a n t o Synge Chief Executive T h e H o n Peter DLxon Paula H u n t Giles Hutchinson Smith

Mallett at Bourdon House Ltd 2 Davies Street L o n d o n W I Y ILJ Telephone: 0171 629 2444 Fax: 0171 499 2670 DIRECTORS L a n t o Synge T h e H o n Peter Dixon Paula H u n t Thomas Woodham-Smith H e n r y Neville Mallett Website: http://www.mallett.co.uk E-mail: Antiques@mallett.co.uk

Front and back cover: Tilly Ketde (1735-1786) Portrait of Major-General Horton Briscoe Page 6 Frondspiecc: Dominic Serres (1722-1793) The Royal Review of the Fleet (detail) Page 44

Š Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd 1998 Designed by T h e o Hodges Business Design Consultants Printed by Saunders a n d Williams


Foreword T h e Mallett Gallery has enjoyed an exciting year, with many interesting new acquisitions and much success exhibiting at the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair in June, and the International Fine Art Fair in New York in May. We were delighted to lend the portrait of Katie Lewis by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones to the centenary exhibition Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian Artist-Dreamer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. T h e exhibition is transferring to England, to the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (17th October 1998-17th J a n u a r y 1999) and finishes in Paris, at the Musee d'Orsay (1st March 1 9 9 9 - 6 t h j u n e 1999). O u r work with museums has been flourishing, with the conversation piece by Gawen Hamilton illustrated on the front of our catalogue last year still the subject of intense fund raising by a national institution. T h e superb set of three portraits by Joseph Wright of Derby, featured here on pages 8 - 1 4 , are currently being considered for purchase by the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, where they have recently been exhibited. T h e front cover of this catalogue illustrates another magnificent portrait, of Major-General Horton Briscoe, by Tilly Kettle. Ketde arrived in India in 1768 and this work is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular images painted in India in the 18th century. We have not sought to deal exclusively in portraits, however, and this catalogue includes both fantasy landscapes and detailed topographical works, a fine marine painting by Dominic Serres and a magnificent large-scale painting of a grey stallion by John Wootton which is thought to have been commissioned by Charles, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, for Langley Park in Buckinghamshire. We hope you will enjoy looking at this combined catalogue of oil paintings and watercolours, and hope that you have the opportunity to visit us here at the gallerv- in London, or at the International Fine Art Fair at the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York in October.

' James Har\ ey Gallery Manager

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l^illy Kettle 1735-1786

The Meritorious Officer Portrait of Major-General Horton Briscoc (1741-1802), with an encampment of Bengal sepoys beyond Oil on canvas 85V2x53V2in / 217 x 136 cm PROVENANCE

Collection of J o h n Tomlinson Esq., Whitehaven, Cumbria; sold from his estate, Christie's, 3rd December 1904, lot 127, bt. McLean; with T h o m a s McLean, London; anon sale, Christie's, 20th May 1955, lot 149, bt. Gooden; with Gooden & Fox, London; the Astor family of Ditchley, Oxfordshire, and subsequently Bruen, Oxfordshire, until 1997. I.ITERATURE

The Times, Monday 5th December 1904, p i 3. •Aj-thur B Chamberlain, George Romn^', 1910, p 308. Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, 1979, p 69, pi 24. This magnificent portrait by Tilly Kettle ranks amongst his finest works. It belongs to a tradition of spectacular full-length portrayals of English sitters in exotic hidian and oriental settings that commences with Van Dyck's celebrated portrait of William Fielding, 1st Earl of Denbigh (National Gallery, London), depicting the sitter in an

imaginary Indian landscape. As the first British portrait painter of distinction to travel to India, Kettle's portrait is - by contrast wholly the product of experience, and constitutes not only one of the most spectacular images painted in India in the 18th century, but also a key documentary record. Although dated by Mildred Archer to the first few years of Kettle's arrival in Madras circa 1770, evidence points to this portrait being painted in Calcutta circa 1773-1776. Ketde arrived at Madras in J u n e 1769 and remained there for a little over two years, painting portraits of natives and East India Company servants and merchants. Towards the end of 1771 he moved to Faizabad and then settled at Calcutta early in 1773, where he remained until his return to England. Horton Briscoe was the third son of the Rev. J o h n Briscoe of Crofton Hall, Cumberiand, and Catherine, daughter of J o h n Hylton of Hylton Castle. His military career began in J a n u a r y 1763 when he sailed for India on the Plassey as a Cadet in the East India Company Service. In 1764 he was promoted

to the rank of Lieutenant, followed by Captain in 1766. T h e uniform he wears in this portrait has been identified as that of an officer of the Governor-General's Body Guard. This elite cavalry unit was raised at Benares in 1773 on the instruction of Warren Hastings for his personal protection, and Captain Horton Briscoe, a fast-rising young infantry officer, was given charge in J a n u a r y 1777. At the time of his death on 25th December 1802, Briscoe was staying at Government House, Calcutta, as a guest of the Marquis of Wellesley. H e was buried with full military honours, and the inscription on his tomb in Calcutta reads:

This meritorious officer / during a period of 40 years of unremitted service, / Distinguuhed himself by hh attachment / to his profession; / ever zealous in the discharge of its duties / fulfilling them / with fidelity and integrity to the State; / and honour and credit to himself as a man; / While good nature, hospitality, / and kindness of heart, / are considered as estimable qualities.



Edward Haydey fl. 1740-1761

Portrait of a Gentleman Oil on canvas 21 X 16 in / 53.5 X 40.5 cm LITER.XTURE

A preliminary checklist of paintings by Haytley prepared by Leger Galleries for their Edward Haytl^ exhibition of June-July 1978. Like his contemporary, Arthur Devis, Ha\tley came from the Lancashire town of Preston. He soon established a metropolitan reputation as a painter of small conversation pieces and landscapes of an elegant and charming type. However, as early as 1740 he was providing flower drawings for Elizabeth Robinson (later Mrs Montagu), the redoubtable blue-stocking. He seems to have worked regularly for this family; and his masterpiece Mrs Montagu with herfamily at Sandleford Priory is amongst the most beautiful English conversation pieces of the 18th centurv'.

His skills rapidly progressed from flower painting to topographical landscape and portrait painting (sometimes life-size), and these are combined masterfully in his outdoor conversation pieces painted for the Brockman family of Beachborough Manor, Kent (now in the National Gallery, Melbourne) Temple Pond Looking Towards the Rotunda and Temple Pondfrom the Rotunda. Haytley enjoyed a peripatetic career in London and the south-east, and was much employed by the grander country gentry: He was a donor of two landscapes to T h o m a s Coram's Foundling Hospital in 1747 (along with other leading artists such as Hogarth, Gainsborough, and Richard Wilson) and he exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1760 and 1761.



Joseph Wright of Derby 1734-1797

Air William Brooke and Mr and Mrs William Pigot

A set of 3 three-quarter length portraits Oil on canvas 5 0 x 4 0 in / 127 X 101.5 cm In original carved gesso and giltvvood frames b y J o h n Dubourg (See Pages 11-14) PROVENANCE

Commissioned by William Brooke, circa 1760; With M r and Mrs William Pigot; Sotheby's London, sale 22nd November 1967; purchased by R D Plant Esq; thence by descent to Peter Plant Esq. LITERATURE

B Nicholson, Joseph Wright of Derby, Painter of Light, vol 1, catalogue nos 120-121; and vol 2, pi 23-24. J a n e Wallis, W^ht of Derby, p 161, p 60 (prcparator>' sketch of table). Judy Egerton (Ed.), Tate Gallery, Wright of Derby (exhibition catalogue), pi 3, p 36, and pp 274-5 for a discussion on the frames. Roy Strong, British Portraits 1660-1960, pi 218, p 232. David Eraser, The Dictionary of Art, vol 33, p 412-415. Joseph Wright was the first major English painter to work outside the capital all his life. Born in Derby, the third son of an attorney, Wright's formal training was taken from Thomas Hudson in his London studio from 1751-1753, and again in 1756-1757. He exhibited in London at the Society of Artists (1765-1776 and 1791) and at the Royal Academy (1778-1782, 1789-1790 and 1794).

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Many of his works are now in the collection of the National Gallery, among them the fine double portrait of M r and Mrs Coltman, which made history by being the first example of Wright's work to seU for over ^1,000,000. U p o n his return to Derby, Wright established his portraiture business, painting numerous portraits of local families, and in 1760 he travelled through the Midlands towards Newark, Retford, Boston, Lincoln and Doncaster seeking work. It is likely that it was on this trip he met William Brooke (the father of Mrs William Pigot) whose portrait he painted in 1760, and that the portraits of M r and Mrs Pigot were commissioned at the same time. William Brooke, born in 1694, was a prominent local figure: four times mayor of Doncaster, and Alderman for thirty years until his death. He came from a long line of merchants and haberdashers established in London by the early 17th century, and had two children. His son J o h n became a merchant in Wakefield, and his daughter Elizabeth married William Pigot, son of the Vicar of Doncaster. In all three portraits the sitters, William Brooke, Elizabeth Pigot, and William Pigot, are dressed in the finest velvets, lace, and silk, which Wright paints with consummate skill.

In his early commissions, Wright often drew on ideas and motifs he had learnt from T h o m a s Hudson, and used them in his own works. T h e r e are two drawings by Wright which direcdy relate to the portraits of M r and M r s Pigot. T h e first is a detailed study of a carved table corner from T h o m a s Hudson's portrait of Charles Pinfold painted in 1756 inscribed The table be...ling to Gt Pinfold's pic (fig 1) which appears in the portrait of M r Pigot; the second is a chalk study for Mrs Pigot after Hudson's portrait of Elizabeth Cartwright (fig 2). Further, the portrait of M r Brooke owes much to a portrait of Handel by Hudson which was engraved by Faber in 1748-1749. This set of three portraits are contained in their fine and original carved gesso and giltw'ood rococo frames, circa 1760-1764. A significant n u m b e r of Wright's paintings retain their original frames, since many of his portraits have descended through the families which commissioned them, and indeed there is a reference in Wright's Account Book linking these frames to J o h n Dubourg, his framer at the time. T h e sum of three pounds and three shillings is mentioned in Pigot's bill which was due and paid to Dubourg. These frames epitomise the lightness of the Rococo style, with their pierced outer rails and scrolling borders.


Mr William Brooke


Mr William Pigot 12


Mrs William Pigot 13


M r William Pigot (detail)

1 a n d 2 r e p r o d u c e d by kind p e r m i s s i o n of DerlnMu.seums a n d A n (;aller>- wiih assistance f r o m J a n e Wallis. K e e p e r of Fine A n .

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Robert Grozier

R o b e r t Crozier was the leading portrait

d. 1891

p a i n t e r to the wealthy industrialists of M a n c h e s t e r a n d Lancashire in the 19th

A Portrait Group of the Children of

century. T h e K e n d a l s were local

Charles Kendal of Manchester

e n t r e p r e n e u r s , a n d their d e p a r t m e n t store in M a n c h e s t e r is still o p e n today.

Oil on canvas 4 0 X 50 in / 101.5 x 127 c m In c o n t e m p o r a r y gilt f r a m e 1,1 l E R A I T R E

T h o m a s Letherbrovv, Robert (Grozier, 1891, p 45.

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Henri Gascars 1635-1701

Portrait of Louise Renee de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth

(1649-1734)

Oil on canvas 42 x 38 in / 106.5 x96.5 cm In contemporary car\cd and gilded frame Engraved by E Baudet after Gascars Louise de Keroualle was the daughter of Guillaume de Penancoet, Sieur de Keroualle, head of an ancient Breton family. Of exceptional charm and beauty, she seems to have been marked out by Louis XIV as a mistress for King Charles II of England with the intention of tying Charles into both the French political sphere of influence and the Catholic faith. Her arrival in England in an English royal yacht preceded her appointment as Maid of Honour to Queen Catherine. The lascivious King Charles was quick to recognise this new beauty in his wife's entourage, and by October 1671 she was firmly established as the King's mistress: she was just twenty two, he was forty one. By the end of July the following year she had given birth to the King's illegitimate son, soon to be made Duke of Richmond. Lady Castlemaine, the PCing's former mistress, was displaced in the King's favour by Ixiuise, now Duchess of Portsmouth in her own right, who had few serious rivals (apart from Nell Gwynn) until the end of Charles' life. She assiduously

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promoted the French interest at court, earning for herself the thorough detestation of most of the English. Her capacity for manipulating her rivals, and her exceptional sensitivity to political nuances, though, kept her position secure, and Charles eventually died a Catholic, having made war on the Dutch, Louis XIV's most serious continental rivals. The death of the King left the Duchess insecure, and she returned to her large estates in France (though they were hardly big enough to supply her spendthrift and extravagant desires). Her efforts on behalf of France were barely recognised by King Louis, although he did continue her allowance. She died as late as 1734, when the memories of the glamorous and dissolute court of Charles II were in the sharpest contrast to the dullness of early Hanov erian England, and she was buried in Paris. Henri Gascars was a pupil of Pierre Mignard, and also studied in Rome, where

he was in 1659. He was qualified at the French Academy in Paris in 1671, and in March of the following year left for England, where he found much patronage at court. He painted numerous portraits of the opulent court of Charles II, where his bright palette and more florid style better served contemporary taste than the more restrained style of English painters of the day. Gascars remained in England for about five years, returning to the continent when Louis X I \ ' ceased to pay a subsidy to King Charles. He was present at Nijmegen to record the celebrations of the peace treaty, and was admitted a full member of the French Academy in 1680. Thereafter he travelled throughout Europe: Modena in 1681, Venice in 1686, Poland in 1691 and eventually Rome, where he died in 1701. Gascars brought to English painting an exoticism and lightness of touch which was amply suited to the Restoration Court, and contrasted vividly with the sombre products of the years of Cromwell's Commonwealth.


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James Latham 1696-1747

Portrait of General Thomas Bligh (1685-1775) Oil on canvas 4 9 ' A x 39 in / 125.7 x 99 cm LITERATURE

A Crookshank and The Knight of Glin, The Painters of Ireland, circa 1660-1920, London, 1978,p42, iUustrated pi 7. Described by Crookshank and the Knight of Glin as 'one of Latham's most memorable paintings, almost French in feeling with its vivid colour and animation', this portrait holds a key place in the artist's oeuvre of only about thirty-five known works. I>atham trained in .Antwerp and was a master of the Guild of St Luke between 1724 and 1725. Stylistically; it seems fair to assume that he must have travelled to or from Anrvver]3 via Paris, and was back in Dublin by the late 1720's, where he established himself as Ireland's most distinguished portrait painter of the first half of the 18th centuH' Thomas Bligh, or Blighe, was the second son of Thomas Bligh of Rathbone, Co. Meath. He was Member of the Irish Parliament for Athboy; Co. Meath, for sixty years from

1715. He married first Elizabeth (d.l759), sister of VV Bury of Shannon Grove, Limerick, and second Frances, daughter of Theophilus Jones of Leitrim. His only child, from his first marriage, died young. Often entided 'honourable' by contemporarywriters after the ennoblement of his brother as the Eari of Darnley in 1725, Bligh pursued an active military career for most of his life. Present at the battles of Dettingen, Fontenoy and Culloden, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and was one of the more prominent military figures of the Seven Years War. In 1 758 he was appointed to command the force sent to assist Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick in Germany. After capturing and slighting Cherbourg, the expedition was repelled by the French under the Due d'Aguillon at St Cas. Bligh was censured for the affair and retired to Ireland.


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Philip Alexius de Laszlo 1869-1937

Portrait of Mrs Leo D'Erlanger Oil on canvas 3 4 ' / 2 x 4 5 in / 87.5 X 114 cm De Laszlo was born in Budapest in 1869, and gained recognition as a portrait painter in Bavaria. Austria a n d G e r m a n y before visiting England at the turn of the century. Here he married into the Guinness family and thus extended his clientele to Ireland as well as England. Like Sargent, he was attracted to the elegance of 18th century English portraiture, in particular that of Reynolds and Gainsborough. With his own portraits he aimed to show 'the spirit by which the h u m a n form is vitali.sed', and here we see M a d a m e d'Erianger in a relaxed pose, 'no stiffness, no constraint, no posing'.

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Jean-Baptiste Pillement 1728-1808

Landscape with Chinoiserie Figures, Elephants, and Camels Oil on canvas 2r/4X 2 9 % in / 54 X 75 cm (See pages 24 and 25)

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Jean-Baptiste Pillement 1728-1808

Pillement was born in Lyon, where he was trained by Daniel Sarrabat in the Rococo style. In 1745 he went to Madrid, where he stayed for three years, and from where he made frequent trips to Portugal. He gained considerable acclaim in both countries, and was commissioned to supervise sets of Rococo chinoiserie paintings for the Dutch Consulate in Lisbon. Shordy afterwards, he was offered the ritle of Painter to the King, but he declined this, and emigrated to London. PiUement stayed in Ix)ndon for ten years, where he painted brighdy coloured theatrical landscapes. His drawings were frequendy engraved for Rococo pattern books, and in 1767 an influential collection of prints of his decorative, genre and landscape subjects was published as One Hundred and Thirty Figures and Ornaments and Some Flowers in the Chinese Style. This and other pattern books were widely used by textile designers. He left London in 1761, having sold off his remaining work at the annual e.xhibidon of the Society of .Artists, and made his way to Vienna.

royal casde in Warsaw, and the same year accepted the tide of Pictor Regius. T h e result was a room of exquisite chinoiseries, as well as the Pillement Room at the Ujazdow Palace. T h e following year, in 1768, Pillement travelled to A\ignon, and in the following decade his reputation steadily grew: in 1772 he painted eleven pictures to hang in David Garrick's villa near Hampton Court; in 1773 he exhibited at the Society of Artists; and in 1779 showed at the Free Society of Artists. In 1776 he exhibited at the Paris Salon, and in 1778 was appointed personal painter to Marie-Antoinette. From France, Pillement returned to Portugal, where the connoisseur W'iUiam Beckford recorded his delight at seeing a room decorated by Pillement in his journal in the 1790's. Among his other commissions during this stay were five views of the gardens at Benfica, Lisbon, and a number of fine shipping scenes. Pillement is recorded as being back in France

From Vienna, Pillement was commissioned in 1767 by the King of Poland to decorate the

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in 1796, where he remained until his death in Lyon in 1808.


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Attributed to Abraham Begeyn

circa 1673, w h e r e he p a i n t e d at H a m House,

t o p o g r a p h i c a l pictures, a n d Begeyn is mainly

1637/8-1697

together with Willem van de Velde the

k n o w n for his views of \'illages, towns a n d

Younger a n d Dirck van den Bergen.

Italianate landscapes a n d s o u t h e r n seaports.

From 1688 Begeyn was elected court p a i n t e r

travels in Holland a n d G e r m a n y were

to Frederick III, Elector of B r a n d e n b u r g

r e p r o d u c e d in prints. In his Italianate

A Park Landscape with Deer and Exotic Birds

S o m e of the drawings he m a d e d u r i n g his

(later Frederick I, K i n g of Prussia), w h o

landscapes, Begeyn was a very close follower

Oil o n canvas

commissioned h i m to d r a w views of his

of Nicolaes B e r c h e m , d r a w i n g in.spiration

32% X 35'A in / 82.6 x 89.4 cm

c o u n t r y estates a n d of \ illages a n d towns in

f r o m his landscapes a n d views of seaports

Germany.

with oriental merchants, richly dressed

T h e r e was a great public interest in

foreground.

D u t c h couples a n d lively animals in the

Begcyn's career as an artist b e g a n in H o l l a n d , but he was r e c o r d e d in L o n d o n

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John Wootton Circa 1682-1764

A Grey Stallion Held by a Groom Signed with monogram Oil on canvas 108 X 147 i n / 274.5 x 373.5 cm (See pages 30 and 31) Perhaps Wootton's greatest legacy was the group of life-size paintings of horses which still adorn the walls at /\lthorp, Badminton and Longleat. This magnificent picture is on the same scale and may have been commissioned by Charles, 3rd Duke of Marlborough for I^ngley Park, Buckinghamshire. It has a grandeur that foreshadows similar life-size portraits of horses by George Stubbs. T h e striking Roman nose of the horse suggests that it is a Barbar\' horse, originally from the wild stock indigenous to Morocco and Algeria and characterised as a breed by flat shoulders, rounded chests, and relatively long heads. British breeders had imported Eastern stallions since Tudor times, but following the Restoration, breeders began crossing the stallions with British mares more regularly to produce the English thoroughbred racehorse. John Wootton is the most distinguished of the early English school of sporting painters. His work was influenced by the continental masters Tillemans and Wyck, upon whom his early style much depends. He is the first artist to give us a visual record of the early days of the hunt and the turf, and his work was popular with his distinguished clientele. Wootton was born at Snitterfield, Warwickshire and many of his most important works can be found in the great houses of the Engli.sh midland shires. As Sir EUis Waterhouse points out in his Didionary of British 18th Cmtury Painters, p 421, he was 'for fifty years the horse painter for the aristocracy '. Apart from his sporting paintings, he was ;ilso one of the prime creators of tlie English landscape, and virtually cornered the market in his early career for battle pictures of the ^Var of the Spanish Succession.

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Bi:^

30


31


( 32


George Garrard 1760-1826

A Pointer in a Landscape Oil on canvas 4 0 x 5 0 in / 101.5 x 127 cm Garrard began his career as an aiDprentice to SawTey Gilpin (later his father-in-law), and in 1788 became a student at the Royal Academy Schools. He exhibited his first sporting picture there in 1781, and was elected ARA in 1800. He had initially decided to concentrate on sporting subjects, but by 1800 was attempting to gain additional recognition as a sculptor of both human and animal form, and his portrait busts of Benjamin West and Humphrey Repton were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803 and 1810 respecli\ely

T h e dog is depicted wearing a collar with the owner's name, G Vines. This M r Godson Vines was a London merchant of Ironmonger Lane who married a Miss Grindley of St J o h n Square on 13th December 1755. M r Vines died in 1813, when his obituary was listed in the Gentleman's Magazine (1813, pt II, p 685). In 1794 the couple li\cd at Wotton-undcrKdge in Gloucestershire, an area where there were a number of members of the same family name. The Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Vines descend from Richard

des Vignes, a Frenciiman whose family, himself apart, was wiped out in 17th century France from religious intolerance. Richard des \'ignes settled in England, and, like so many Huguenots, prospered here. He was naturalised, and was appointed Chaplain to King Charles I. T h e family changed its name to Vines in 1645, and Richard's son (also Richard) married a Gloucestershire woman. Fhe family spread throughout Wiltshire and (iloucestershire, where they kept agricultural estates, including Vines House in Seagry, a Cieorgian house which remained in the family until sold by /Vnne \'ines Sainpson in 1904.

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Gourlay Steell, RSA 1819-1894

Que^n Victoria and Prince Albert the Llamas in the Home Park,

Viewing Windsor

Signed and dated 1845 Oil on slate 33V, X 47% in / 84.5

X

120.5 cm

(See pages 36 and 37) 35


Gourlay Steell, RSA 1819-1894

PROVENANCE T h e Nicoll Family

LITERATURE Engraved in The Bengal Hurkaru and The India Gazette, 21st July 1848, illustrated p 1. Vaughan Wilkins, ' T h e Last Romance of a Prime Minister' in Modern \Mman,]u\y 1937, illustrated p 23. Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince Consort are depicted in the H o m e Park at Windsor in 1845 astride their horses, Tajar (the grey on which the Queen is seated - a most distinctive horse with dappled haunches and strikingly dark hocks) and H a m m o n , a chestnut. Tajar was acquired by Prince Albert in 1844, and was often ridden by the Queen, while H a m m o n was presented to the Queen in 1844 by the King of Prussia. Both horses were painted by Herring in 1844. With them, in the foreground, is .-Mbert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) on his Shetland pony T h e painting comes from the Nicoll family, whose forebears, H J and D Nicoll, were pioneers of large-scale retailing in London and Paris (with premises also in Liverpool,

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Manchester and Birmingham). It is believed that this work was commissioned to be part of a decorative scheme for their shop at 114120 Regent Street, which was opened in 1845 (the choice of slate as a support for an oil painting being most unusual), and indeed the royal couple are depicted wearing 'Nicoll's paletot.' This paletot (a cloak made of alpaca wool from llamas) was patented by Nicoll and sold so well that it formed the basis of his fortune. T h e painting was reproduced as an engraving in a newspaper in India in July 1848 as an advertisement for the famous paletot. Gourlay Steell was appointed to the post of Animal Painter for Scotland by Q u e e n Victoria after the death of Landseer in 1873. This prestigious award, along with his appointment as Painter to the Highland and Agricultural Society, ensured him a virtual monopoly of animal and sporting commissions in Scotland, although he also painted genre and historical scenes. H e exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1865-80 and at the Royal Scottish Academy from 1832-94, becoming an Associate of the latter in 1846.


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Jean-Baptiste Lallemand 1716-1803

A Rustic Harvest

Landscape

Signed Oil o n canvas 41 x 5 3 i n / 104 X 134.5 cm Lallemand was b o r n a n d grew u p in Dijon,

paintings of antique architecture for the

where he trained as a tailor. In 1793,

Anitchkov Palace in St Petersburg.

however, he moved to Paris to study painting, a n d in S e p t e m b e r 1745 he was

Lallemand r e t u r n e d to France in 1761,

m a d e a m e m b e r of the Academic de St Luc,

exhibiting a n u m b e r of views of Naples a n d

a n d b e c a m e established as a notable

R o m e at the Academic de St Luc. Between

topographical a n d landscape painter. It was

1770 a n d 1773 he was in Dijon, where he

here, too, in 1755 that he taught landscape

was a m e m b e r of the j u r y for the new Ecole

drawing to R o b e r t A d a m .

de Dessin, a n d it was at this time that he began contributing drawings for the twelve

H e left Paris in 1747 a n d moved to Rome,

volume Voyage Pittoresque de la France,

where he was in touch with such French

providing one h u n d r e d a n d forty views in

artists as Vernet a n d the architect Charles de

all. In 1783 he exhibited a n u m b e r of

Wailly. Here he worked on frescoes in the

landscapes at the Salon de C o r r e s p o n d a n c e .

Palazzo Corsini, a n d painted four large

38


39


J a n Griffier the Elder 1645-1718

View from Richmond Hill, the River Thames, Orleans House and Douglas House beyond

Oil on cainas 22 X 29 V, in / 55.8 x 75 cm T h e viewpoint is closc to that of the left section of Tillemans' Panorama of The Thames from Richmond Hill in the Government .\rt Collection (see E Einberg, Manners and Morals, Hogarth and British Painting ! 700-1760, catalogue for the exhibition at the l a t e Gallery, London, 1988, p 68, no 44).

40

J a n Griffier was a merchant, born in Amsterdam, whose amateur interest in painting developed into a professional one. His career was split between Holland and England, where he first arrived just after 1666. He took lessons from the landscape painter Jan Looten, another English-based Dutchman, whose tonality he imitates throughout his career. He travelled widely (Vertue tells us that he kejJt his own yacht, which on one occasion was wrecked on a journey to Holland, thereby causing the loss of much of his stock of drawings) and seems to have worked in a number of English locations. In about 1695 (and possibly earlier) Griffier was once more in Holland, where he remained for a decade or so. He returned to

London in 1705, where he became part of the bustling Netherlandish emigre art scen and his style changed to what might best b described as a proto-English landscape technique, a precursor of the pure English style of such painters as William Tomkins and T h o m a s Smith.

T h e last decade of his life was devoted to topographical landscape painting along the T h a m e s Valley, including Greenwich, Windsor, Oxford, and Gloucestershire. He also made occasional forays into types of painting such as exotic bird pieces in the m a n n e r of his fellow emigre painter Pieter Casteels.


John Glover, RA 1767-1849

A Romantic Wooded Landscape Oil on canvas

was appointed Writing Master of the PVee School at Appleby, and it was during this period that he became an accomplished landscapist in watercolour. He is known to have visited London on several occasions and received tuition from the well-known watercolourist, J o h n Warwick Smith.

30 X 45 in / 76 X 115 cm As an artist, J o h n Glover is known primarily as a landscapist, hut he proved equally adept in both oils and vvatercolour. His other talents included calligraphy bird taming, farming, and mountaineering. (Jlover was born at Houghton-on-the-Hill in Leicestershire in 1 767, the son of a farm labourer from whom he inherited his love for agriculture. At the age of nineteen he

In 1 794 Glover moved to Lichfield where he took up a post as drawing master and started to paint in oil. His subjects included landscapes of England, Scotland and Wales, and architectural \'iews. From 1824 he exhibited regularly at the Clarlisle Academy as well as at man)- of the principal London venues. He exhibited at the Royal Academ\' from 1795-1812, and the Royal Society of British Artists from 1824-1849. His work also caused much interest at the Old

W^tercolour Society (of which he became President in 1814), but general consensus of opinion considered his drawings to be of a higher quality than his watercolours. Glover emigrated to Tasmania in 1831, where he settled with his family at Launceston. Although he continued to send his works to the annual London exhibitions, he also took up farming. He died at Launceston in 1849. His work is represented in se\'eral art galleries including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Clambridge, the Laing Art Galler\' in Newcastle and the Aberdeen Art Gallerv:


Pierre-Joseph Petit 18th century

The Bay of Naples Looking Towards Santa Lucia The Bay of Naples Looking Towards Vesuvius A pair Each signed and dated 1791 Oil on canvas 2 1 V ÂŤ x 3 r / 8 i n / 5 5 x 8 1 cm Pierre-Joseph Petit was born in Iburnai in Belgium, and was a student of Jean-I'Van^ois 42

Hue, a marine and landscape painter. He regularly travelled to Italy and exhibited at the Salon, and it has been suggested that this pair of Neapolitan views was exhibited at the Salon in 1793 (no 100) as simply A Pair of Landscapes. Petit exhibited a number of Italian views at the Salons of 1793, 1795, and 1800, but although he continued to show there until 1819, his production of Italian views stopped in 1820. Two works by Petit are now in the collection of the Museum in Saint-Etienne, The Tower of Clappe, and On the Banks of the lj)ire.


43


Dominic Serres 1722-1793

The Royal Review of the Fleet: HMS Baifleur, Worcester, and Royal Oak Oil on canvas 40% X 42% in / 102 X 109 cm This painting is a smaller version of one of the set of four depicting the Royal visit to the Fleet in 1773 which were painted for George III, to whom Serres was appointed Marine Painter, and which now hang in Buckingham Palace. T h e Royal visit lasted from 22nd to 26th J u n e 1773, and was organised by J o h n Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (17181792), First Lord of the Admiralty, to promote the King's interest in the Navy. T h e King arrived at Portsmouth in the morning of 22nd June. At 1.30pm he embarked in a barge and went on board the Baifleur of ninety guns at Spithead, where he was received by the Board of Admiralty. At 3.30pm he sat down to a table of thirty covers; he re-embarked in his barge at six o'clock. In this picture the Baifleur is seen surrounded by the barges of the Board of Admiralty; the three Flag Officers and all the Captains. T h e flag of the Lord High .-Admiral, the Royal Standard and the Union flag had been hoisted in the Bafleur when the King came on board; 'on the sight of which all the ships, except the Bafleur, saluted with twenty-one guns each'. O n the right of the Bafleur can be seen the Royal Oak

\ \ r a r c g r a t e f u l t o M r R o g e r ( ^ u a r t t i . C u r a t o r of Paintings at the .National .Maritime M u s e u m , a n d K a t h e r i n e Barrott, -Assistant C u r a t o r of Paintings at T h e Royal Clollection. f()r their h e l p iti t h e a t t r i b u t i o n a n d i d e m i h e a t i o n of this paintitig.

44

with the flag of Thomas Pye, Vice Admiral of the Red, and the Dublin with the flag of Lord Edgcumbe as Vice-Admiral of the Blue. Serres was born into a prosperous and socially distinguished Gascon family who directed him towards a career in the Church. H e seems to have arrived in England in the 1750's as a prisoner of war, ha\ing run away and served on a Spanish ship. H e was reportedly captured and sent to Northamptonshire, where, after his release, he married and began work as a country house painter. It is only after his arrival in London [circa 1758) and his switch to marine painting (initially under the tutorship of Charles Brooking) that his life and work can be documented with any certainty H e exhibited at the Society of Artists (17651768) and at the Free Society (1761-1764), becoming a founder member of the Royal Academy where he exhibited from 1769 to 1793. His early paintings show the influence of both Brooking's and Peter Monamy's interpretations of Dutch marine art of the 17th century; but he rapidly achieved recognition for his ostensibly documentary visual accounts of the sea actions.


45


Madeleine Jeanne Lemaire 1845-1928

Dahlias with a Bust of Pan in a Garden Signed Oil on canvas 1 1 4 x 7 9 in / 289.5 X 200.5 cm Lemaire is recorded as a painter of flowers, portraits and genre, although it is her pictures of flowers for which she is most famous. She was born in Ares in France in 1845, and studied under M m e Herbelin and Chaplin. She first exhibited at the Salon in 1864, and in 1900 won a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle. She was a Member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1890, and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1906. Examples of her work can be found in museums in Dieppe, Rheims, Toulouse and Mulhouse, and she also illustrated Marcel Proust's Les Plahirs et les Jours.

46


\

S,


Watercolours and Drawings Watercolour painting is considered to have begun in the 16th and 17th centuries in northern Europe, when it was employed as a tint for line drawings of places, people, or natural history and a tradition of topographical watercolour painting had become firmly established by the end of the 18th century. We are pleased to offer on the following pages a selection of G r a n d Tour watercolours of Italy from this exciting period in the development of watercolour and gouache as a collectable medium. Among our most recent acquisitions is a rare group of four gouache views of Dresden and the River Elbe dated 1806. These are

an important historical record of this beautiful city. By the early 19th century, watercolour paintings were beginning to make the transition from collectors' cabinets to their walls, and the establishment of the Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1804 marked an important turning point. We also include in this catalogue a remarkably fresh and x'ibrant watercolour. The Merry-Go-Round on the Ice by Robert Barnes, which was exhibited at the Society in 1888 (by this time, the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours).

C Rocs, fl. 1800-1820 Vkws of Dresden and the River Elbe (detail) (See pages 50-51) 48


W

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C Roes

fl. 1800-1820

Views of Dresden and the River Elbe

A set of four

One signed and dated 1806 Gouache 7V2X lO'Ain/ 19x26.5 cm

50


51


%'

m

Ss


John Russell

high pitch, and in 1772 ]3ublished Elements of Painting with Crayons. He won premiums from the Society of Arts for drawings in 1 759 and 1760 and entered the Ri\ Schools in 1770.

1745-1806

A Portrait of Sarah White as

Ilebe

Pastel 30% X 39% in / 77.5 x 100.5 cm Ru.ssell wa.s based in London, and spent se\eral months in eacii year traxelling the couiun- executing portraits in oil and pastels. His oil portraits arc considered dull but he periected his technique in pastel to a ver>'

Russell exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1 768 and also abundantly at the Royal Academy between 1769-1806, becoming a full Academician in 1 788. Sarah White was the daughter of Thomas While and Sarah Woolaston; she is pictured here as Hebe, the embodiment of youthful innocence in mythology'.

53


Neapolitan School Circa 1825

A Set of Nine Early 19th Century Topographical Views of the Bay of Maples Gouache E a c h 8 X l l ' / 2 m / 20 x 29 c m A set of nine early ! 9th century topographical views of the Bay of Naples, including the f a m o u s Neapolitan landmarks such as the peninsula with the Castel cieirOvo, die fortress of the C a r m i n e , the h a r b o u r with its lighthouse a n d the Castel S a n t ' E l m o overlooking the city. Ever present, the smouldering M o u n t Vesu\'ius dominates the tranquil scenes of a b u n d a n t fishing a n d tourist vessels, criss-crossing the busy channels between the islands of C a p r i , Ischia, Procida a n d off the p r o m o n t o r y of Sorrento.

54



Filippo Giuntotardi

LITERATURE

1768-1831

S Heiland, Museum der Bildenden Kiinste Leipzig: Katalog der Gemdlde, Leipzig 1979

The Falls of Tivoli

This painting and the painting opposite of Paestum were purchased from the artist by Ernst Freiherr Blumner von Frohburg whilst on the Grand Tour in Italy in 1803. Blumner travelled to Italy in the company of the artist Johann Carl Rosier, and by April 1803 they had reached Florence. At the end of June they travelled to Rome, where they stayed untU 1804. In Rome Blumner made the acquaintance of many artists, including Giuntotardi and Angelika Kauffmann, and his diary records many purchases at this time.

Signed, dated 1803, and inscribed Roma Watercolour 2 6 % x 4 1 in / 67.6 X 104.4 cm PROVENANCE

Ernst Freiherr Blumner von Frohburg; by descent through his family until confiscated during the Russian occupation of Germany in 1944; acquired in 1946 by the Museum der Bildenden Kiinste, Leipzig; returned to the family in 1997. EXHIBITED

Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig. 56


Filippo Giuntotardi 1768-1831 View of Paestum Watercolour

25V4x4iy4m/ 65.5 x 105 cm

57


Peter Birmann 1758-1844

A set of four views near Rome

Birmann began his career as a portrait

Inscribed as follows:

painter in Basle and Pruntrut, but in 1755 he

1

painting. In 1781 he moved to Rome, where

Vue d'une partie du Lac d'Albano et de la

he spent ten years, working for Louis Ducros

Gallerie de Castel-Gandolfo, prise d

and Giovanni Volpato. During this period he

moved to Berne and took up landscape

Palazzuolo vis d vis du convent des cappucins

painted landscapes in watercolour and drew in bistre, particularly in the Alban Hills, where he was attracted by the fountains at Tivoli a n d Terni. His later R o m a n works,

Pen a n d brown wash over pencil

such as these, became more classical in style,

21

and were increasingly strengthened with pen

X

30 in / 53.5 x 76 cm

outlines.

Vue de Tivoli prise pres du couvent de

In 1792 he left R o m e to return to Basle,

Saint Paul

where he became an art dealer, opened his own shop and set up a publishing house. In

Signed and dated 1787 Pen and brown wash over pencil 2V/2 X 3OV4 in / 54.3 x 76.5 cm

1802 he printed his best-known work, a series of topographical aquatints Voyage Pittoresque de Basle a Bienne par les Vallons de Mottiers-Grandvai For the next two years he showed at the annual exhibitions of the Kunstlergesellschaft

Vue de la Villa d'Este et d'une partie de la campagne de Rome Signed and dated 1787 Pen and brown wash over pencil 21 x 30 in / 53.5 x 76 cm

Vue prise derriere la Villa Albani Signed, dated 1787, and inscribed Roma Pen and brown wash over pencil 18% X27'/4 in 7 47.5 x 6 9 cm (See pages 60 and 61)

58

in Zurich; in 1804 and 1810 he exhibited in oils, a medium which was becoming increasingly important to him.


% 1


J. i

60

1 - ! - 9 i


61


Attributed to Xavier Delia Gatta 1777-1827

View of Posillipo, Maples Gouache l O V s x 17'/. in / 2 7 x 43.5 c m

62


Neapolitan School Circa 1800

l^ww of the Palazzo Donna'Anna in Maples Inscribed on m o u n t (iouache 10'/, X 17 in 7 26 x 43 cm

63


English School Circa 1790

Parrots in a Landscape A pair Watercolour 15% X 12 in / 39 X 30.5 cm

64


65


Robert Barnes n. 1873-1893

A Merry-Go-Round

on the Ice

Signed and dated 1888 Pencil, watercolour with gum arable and scratching out 13% X 22% i n / 3 4 x 57 cm EXHIBIIED Ix3ndon, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours 1888, no 309 Barnes is recorded as a painter of genre and landsca])e. He exhibited at the R A [Little iMdy Bountiful, 1873 and Mr Justice Hawkins Sums Up, 1891) and the O W S between 18731893. The outstanding quality of this watercolour shows just how well Victorian artists could adapt the medium of watercolour to a narrative subject. It must count as one of the most delightful Victorian skating scenes so far known.

66


m'

67


Index

Artist

Title

Pa

Barnes, Robert

A Merry-Go-Round on the Ice

66-

Begeyn, Abraham (Attributed to)

A Park Ijindscape with Deer and Exotic Birds

26-

Birmann, Peter

Four views near Rome

58-

CIrozier, Robert

The Kendal Children

cie Laszlo, .Alexius Philip

Mrs Leo D'Erlanger

Delia Gatta, Xavier (Attributed to)

View of Posillipo

English School

Parrots in a Landscape

64-

Garrard, George

A Pointer in a Landscape

32-

Gascars, Henri

The Duchess of Portsmouth

16-

Giuntotardi, Filippo

Views of Tivoli and Paestum

56-

Glover, John

A Romantic Wooded landscape

Griffier.Jan

View from Richmond Hill

Hartley, Edward

Portrait of a Gentleman

8

Kettle, Tilly

The Meritorious Officer

6

Lallemand, Jean-Baptiste

A Rustic Harvest iMndscape

38-

Lemaire, Madeleine

Dahlias with a Bust of Pan in a Garden

46-4

Latham, James

General Thomas Bligh

18-

Neapolitan School

A Set of Xine Early 19th Century Topographical Views of the Bay of Naples

54-5

Neapolitan School

View of the Palazzo Donna'Anna

Petit. Pierre-Joseph

Views of Naples

42-4

Pillement, Jean-Baptiste

Landscape with Chinoiserie Figures, Elephant, and Camels

22-2

Roes, C

Views of Dresden and the River Elbe

48-5

20-

Russell, John

A Portrait of Sarah White as Hebe

52-5

Serres, Dominic

The Royal Review of the Fleet

44-4

Steel!, Gourlay

Queen Victoria a)id Prim e Albert Viewing the Llamas

34-3

Wootton, John

A Grey Stallion Held by a Groom

28-3

Wright of Derby, Josc|)h

Mr William Brooke and Mrs and Mrs William Pigot

10-1

68


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