FINE PAINTINGS, WORKS ON PAPER & SCULPTURE
WEDNESDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2025
Lot 88 (detail)
FINE PAINTINGS, WORKS ON PAPER & SCULPTURE
TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION: 25 Blythe Road, London W14 0PD
AUCTION:
Wednesday 10th December 2025, 12pm, precisely
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 7th December, 12pm to 4pm
Monday 8th December, 10am to 8pm (Drinks from 5pm)
Tuesday 9th December, 10am to 5pm
SALE NUMBER OA0173
ENQUIRIES:
Adrian Biddell, Head of Sale adrian.biddell@olympiaauctions.com
Tazeena Thorowgood, Assistant and Administrator tazeena.thorowgood@olympiaauctions.com
Veronique Biddell, Specialist veronique.biddell@olympiaauctions.com
Charlotte Norman-Butler, Specialist charlotte.normanbutler@olympiaauctions.com
Suzanne Zack, Consultant for watercolours and drawings Suzanne.zack@olympiaauctions.com
+44 (0)20 7806 5541 pictures@olympiaauctions.com
ONLINE CATALOGUE AND LIVE INTERNET BIDDING AVAILABLE THROUGH: www.olympiaauctions.com www.the-saleroom.com www.invaluable.com www.drouotonline.com
Property from a Deceased Estate, London
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (DUTCH 1606-1669)
FAUST IN HIS STUDY (1652)
etching, a later impression with wear, on laid paper, with margins
20.9 x 16.1cm; 8 1/4 x 6 1/4in (plate)
27 x 20.5cm; 10 1/4 x 8in (sheet) unframed
Provenance
Acquired by the grandmother of the present owners circa 1960
Literature Bartsch no. 270
£1,200-1,800
Property from a Deceased Estate, London 2
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (DUTCH 1606-1669)
RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON (1636)
etching, a late impression, on laid paper, with narrow margins
16 x 14cm; 6 1/8 x 6 5/8in (plate)
16.5 x 14.5cm; 6 1/2 x 5 3/4in (sheet) unframed
Provenance
Acquired by the grandmother of the present owners circa 1960
Literature Bartsch, no. 91
£1,000-1,500
Property from a Private Collection, Chelsea
FRENCH SCHOOL CIRCA 1720
PORTRAIT OF JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART, THE OLD PRETENDER, HALF-LENGTH IN A MILITARY CARTOUCHE
inscribed Jacobus / III Magna Britanie / Rex oil on canvas
42.5 x 33cm; 16 3/4 x 13in
58.5 x 48.5cm; 23 x 19in (framed)
Provenance
The Marquis of Bristol, Ickworth, Suffolk
Sale, Sotheby’s, Ickworth, 11-12 June 1996, lot 508
Sale, Sotheby’s, Wormington Manor, 21st July 2003, lot 323
Purchased by the present owner at the above sale
James Stuart (1688-1766) was the only son of King James II of England and Mary of Modena.
£1,500-2,500
Property from a Private Collection, Belgravia 4
GERMAN SCHOOL (17TH CENTURY)
ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA oil on canvas
110 x 81cm; 43 1/4 x 32in
137 x 108cm; 54 x 42 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s London, 5th July 1995, lot 150
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
£2,000-3,000
Property from a Private Collection, Belgravia
CIRCLE OF ISAAK LUTTICHUYS (DUTCH SCHOOL CIRCA 1630)
PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN
oil on panel
45.5 x 35.5cm; 18 x 14in
63 x 53cm; 24 3/4 x 20 3/4in (framed)
£1,200-1,800
Property from a Private Collection, Belgravia
6
CIRCLE OF EDWAERT COLLIER (DUTCH CIRCA 1640-1708)
VANITAS STILL LIFE WITH A NAUTILUS SHELL, A GILT CANDLESTICK, BUBBLES, A POCKET WATCH, AND A BOOK ILLUSTRATING A PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS
inscribed ‘HOMO EST / SIMILIS / BULLÆ.’ lower right oil on canvas
57.5 x 62cm; 22 3/4 x 24 1/2in
71.5 x 76cm; 28 1/4 x 30in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Christies Amsterdam, 7th September 2005, lot 90
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
The objects reminding the viewer of the transience of life and the inevitability of death are typical of Collier’s work. The Latin inscription homo est similis bullae underscores the message: man is like a bubble, even Desiderius Erasmus, the most influential Dutch humanist of the Sixteenth century.
£7,000-10,000
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
ATTRIBUTED TO MARMADUKE CRADOCK (BRITISH 1660-1716) A PEACOCK, DUCKS AND OTHER BIRDS, BY A DOVEHOUSE IN A RIVER LANDSCAPE oil on canvas
91 x 142cm; 35 3/4 x 56 1/4in
180 x 109.5cm; 71 x 43in (framed)
Provenance
Acquired prior to 1990
£4,000-6,000
Property from a Private Collection, Chelsea
CAREL VAN FALENS (DUTCH 1683-1733)
DEPARTURE OF THE HAWKING PARTY
signed J.C. vanfalens lower left oil on canvas
50 x 60cm; 19 3/4 x 23 1/2in
67.5 x 77.5cm; 26 1/2 x 30 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
William Paterson, London
Sale, Sotheby’s, Ickworth, Suffolk, 11-12 June 1996, lot 502
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
Literature
Kathrin Bürger, ‘Carel van Falens. Een vaardige, vaak bedrieglijk knappe imitator van Philips Wouwerman’, in Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 55, December 2007, pp. 333-351, fig. 9
£4,000-6,000
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
FRENCH SCHOOL (18TH CENTURY)
NYMPH RECLINING SURROUNDED BY PUTTI IN A CLASSICAL LANDSCAPE oil on canvas
81 x 78.5cm; 32 x 31in
110 x 97cm; 43 1/4 x 38 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Acquired prior to 1990
£2,000-3,000
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
FOLLOWER OF JEAN-BAPTISTE MONNOYER
(FRENCH 1636-1699)
STILL LIFE WITH LILIES, ROSES, LILAC AND CARNATIONS IN AN URN titled, inscribed and incompletely dated Pottier / Belin de Fontenay / 160 on an old label on the reverse oil on canvas
141 x 82cm; 55 1/2 x 32 1/4in
165 x 106cm; 65 x 41 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Christie’s New York, 17th October 2006, lot 46 Purchased at the above sale
£3,000-5,000
Property from a Private Collection, Belgravia 11
NORTH ITALIAN SCHOOL (18TH CENTURY)
THREE CHILDREN WITH A PUG oil on canvas
79 x 98.5cm; 31 x 38 3/4in
97 x 115cm; 38 1/4 x 45 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 31st October 2006, lot 230
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
£1,500-2,000
Property from a Private Collection 12
NORTH ITALIAN SCHOOL (EARLY 18TH CENTURY)
CIRCE AND JUDITH - A PAIR each oil on copper panel each 22 x 16.5cm; 8 3/4 x 6 1/2in each 22.5 x 17cm; 9 x 6 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s London, 3rd July 2007, lot 497
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
£1,000-1,500
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 13
ENGLISH SCHOOL (EARLY 19TH CENTURY)
THREE YOUNG LADIES PLAYING MUSIC IN A DRAWING ROOM BY THE COAST oil on canvas
70 x 85cm; 27 1/2 x 33 1/2in
92 x 105cm; 36 1/4 x 41 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Christie’s London, 22nd July 2009, lot 112
Purchased at the above sale
£800-1,200
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
AFTER ANTOINE-IGNACE MELLING (GERMAN/FRENCH 1763-1831)
(I) VUE DES ISLES DES PRINCES; (II) VUE DE L’ISLE DE TÉNÉDOS, DANS L’ARCHIPEL; (III) PRAIRIE DE BUYUK-DÉRÉ; (IV) VUE DU VILLAGE DE TARAPIA, SUR LA RIVE EUROPÉENE DU BOSPHORE; (V) VUE DE L’ARSENAL DE CONSTANTINOPLE
(i) signed Dessiné par Melling lower left margin; inscribed Gravé a l’eau f. te par Pillement fils lower centre margin; inscribed Terminé par Duparc lower right margin; (ii) signed Dessiné par Melling lower left margin; inscribed Gravée a l’eau f. te par Schroeder et le Rouge lower centre margin; inscribed Terminé par Duparc lower right margin; (iii) signed Dessiné par Melling lower left margin; inscribed Gravé a l’eau f. te par Pillement fils lower centre margin; inscribed Terminé par Pillement lower right margin; (iv) signed Dessiné par Melling lower left margin; inscribed Gravé a l’eau f. te par Schroeder et le Rouge lower centre margin; inscribed Terminé par Schroeder lower right margin; (v) signed Dessiné par Melling lower left margin; inscribed Gravé a l’eau forte par Schroeder et Coiny lower centre margin; inscribed Terminé par Schroeder lower right margin all etching with engraving with later hand-colouring (i & ii) 45 x 81cm; 17 3/4 x 31 3/4in (plate); 64.5 x 100.5cm; 25 1/2 x 39 1/2in (framed) (iii) 43 x 65.5cm; 17 x 25 3/4in (plate); 62.5 x 82.5cm; 14 1/2 x 32 1/2in (framed) (iv) 43 x 70cm; 17 x 27 1/2in (plate); 62.5 x 89cm; 24 1/2 x 35in (framed) (v) 50 x 93cm; 19 3/4 x 36 1/2in (plate); 69.5 x 112cm; 27 1/4 x 44in (framed) (5)
Provenance
Acquired prior to 1990
The present five coloured engravings of views of the Bosphorus are after Melling’s series of 48 engravings Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore, published in Paris between 1809 and 1819. Each engraving was based on a watercolour by Melling of which only very few survive. The scenes are mostly topographical reflecting Melling’s factual style. The watercolours were originally exhibited at the Paris Salon with huge success, some being acquired by Empress Josephine.
Melling trained in Germany in architecture and painting and travelled to Constantinople in 1784 at the age of nineteen where he became a member of the Russian Ambassador’s retinue. He remained there for the following eighteen years, his extended stay allowing him to experience life in the Ottoman court. He was appointed architect to Hatice Sultan, the sister of Sultan Selim III (1761-1808), gaining the favour of the Sultan himself when he was granted permission to study the interior of the Harem and other palaces. After Turkey Melling moved to Paris he became landscape painter to Empress Josephine and set up an engraving studio to produce editions of his drawings. He commissioned some of Paris’ finest engravers to work on the Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople.
£1,800-2,500
Property from a Private Collection, North London 15
MARINUS ADRIANUS I KOEKKOEK
(DUTCH 1807-1868/70)
(I) SKATERS IN A WINTER LANDSCAPE; (II) CATTLE IN FARMLAND - A PAIR
(i) signed and dated M.A. Koekkoek.1862 lower right; (ii) signed and dated M.A. Koekkoek / 1862 lower left both oil on panel each 24 x 32.5cm; 9 1/2 x 12 3/4in each 38.5 x 46.5cm; 15 x 18 1/2in (framed) (2)
Provenance
MacConnal-Mason & Son Ltd, London
Purchased from the above by the father of the present owner by 1990
£2,000-3,000
Property from a French Private Collector 16
ITALIAN SCHOOL (EARLY 19TH CENTURY)
VIEW OVER MILAN AND THE DUOMO
hand coloured etching with aquatint and gouache on paper
29.5 x 96.5cm; 11 1/2 x 38in
42.5 x 110cm; 16 3/4 x 43 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Joris van Riel, Paris
Thence by descent to the present owner, son of the above, in 2004
£600-800
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 17
GABRIELE SMARGIASSI (ITALIAN 1798-1882)
HILLTOP VILLAGE BY A LAKE IN THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA
signed Smargiassi lower left oil on paper laid down on canvas
26 x 39cm; 10 1/4 x 15 1/4in
36 x 49cm; 14 1/4 x 19 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Acquired prior to 1990
£1,500-2,500
Property from a Private Collection 18
FOLLOWER OF JOHN HAMILTON MORTIMER (BRITISH 1741-1779)
BATTLE WEARY - A SOLDIER AND TWO BANDITTI
pencil and pen and brown ink on paper 22 x 25.5cm; 8 3/4 x 10in
Provenance
Michael Yates, London (a gift on his retirement as head of design at London Weekend Television, September 1974) By descent from the above to the present owner
£600-800
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 19
PIETER SLUYTER (DUTCH 1675-1715), AFTER MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN (1647-1717)
FOUR BOTANICAL STUDIES OF FLOWERS, BUTTERFLIES AND CATERPILLARS
each signed P. Sluyter Sculp. each hand-coloured etching various sizes 37 x 27cm; 14 1/2 x 10 1/2in
three 71 x 57cm; 28 x 22 1/2in; one 53 x 45cm; 21 x 17 3/4in (framed) (4)
Provenance
Acquired prior to 1990
The present four hand coloured etchings are after Maria Sibylla Merian’s acclaimed publication Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium printed in Amsterdam in 1705. Containing 60 engraved plates after Merian’s original watercolours, it records the life cycles of butterflies, moths and insects alongside plants and animals in the Dutch colony of Suriname on the equatorial northeast coast of South America.
A botanical artist of exceptional originality and a respected scholar of the natural sciences, Merian explored Suriname during a remarkable journey she made to the colony between 1699 and 1701 with her younger daughter Dorothea Maria (1678–1743). The resultant publication marked not only a major contribution to the history of natural science, but also the first-ever book to be devoted to Suriname. Of the known extant versions, two are in the Royal Collection, acquired by William IV and George III.
£1,200-1,800
PROPERTY FROM THE FAMILY OF GEORGE RICHMOND (1809-1896)
(LOTS 20-39)
The present group of works, which has remained in the collection of the artist’s descendants, charts George Richmond’s artistic development from the 1820s and 1830s - his early visionary years as a member of the Ancients - through his travels in Italy with Samuel Palmer, to his success as a portrait artist in the 1840s and later. Together they show his evolution in engraving, drawing and painting, as well as style and subject matter.
Richmond was the youngest of the group of artists who styled themselves the Ancients that included Samuel Palmer (1805-1881) and Edward Calvert (1799-1883); all were inspired by the work of William Blake (1757-1827). Richmond met Blake in 1825, the year he entered the Royal Academy where he studied under Henry Fuseli. In 1826 he moved to Shoreham in Kent with Palmer, living simply, painting, engraving, and discussing religion and poetry.
There he created the earliest work in the present group, the line engraving
The Shepherd (lot 21). In his biography Raymond Lister describes The Shepherd as ‘a flame of ecstasy… among ash trees intermingled with palms in an English promised land’ recalling Paradise Lost . Richmond and Palmer shared a lifelong passion for Milton (see Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, London, 1981, p. 125).
Girls at a Spring, A Recollection from Nature (lot 26) is another early work in the group, a jewel-like painting from the early 1830s that combines Blake’s figurative style with Palmer’s lyrical landscapes.
In October 1837 Richmond and his wife Julia set out with Palmer and his wife on an extended journey through France and northern Italy, arriving in Rome that November. Richmond kept illustrated diaries and made numerous annotated sketches of the works of the great masters he studied. There are a range of drawings from this period in the sale, including copies after Raphael, Uccello, Titian, Annibale and Ludovico Carracci, and Michelangelo (lots 29-32 & 37-39). Like Blake before him, Richmond was deeply moved by Michelangelo’s power and vitality, recording after a visit to the Sistine Chapel that ‘he indeed was the King of Art.’
Trained as a miniature painter like his father Thomas (1771-1837), Richmond showed exceptional skill in life-like observation and jewel-like colour. His miniatures of Samuel Palmer (1829) and of himself (1830) painted when he was in his early twenties, both now in the National Portrait Gallery, exemplify this mastery. The sale includes a fine copy of his 1830 self-portrait miniature made in 1897 by John Douglas Miller (lot 22).
After his marriage in 1831, financial necessity and a growing family led him to concentrate on portraiture. He became one of the most accomplished portraitists of the Victorian era, painting leading writers, scientists and politicians of the age as well as gentry, nobility and royalty. Sitters included Charlotte Brontë, Charles Darwin, Elizabeth Fry, Edward VII, William Wilberforce, William Blake, Gilbert Scott and John Ruskin. The sale includes a fine drawing of Lord Cremorne - a study for his finished oil portrait (lot 27), and a reduced copy of Gainsborough’s portrait of Johann Christian Fischer, the Composer (lot 28).
Throughout his life Richmond remained devoted to recording the landscape. Whether depicting the countryside around Shoreham or the Italian Campagna, his work is distinguished by a gentle, idyllic quality. His pencil and watercolour studies capture fleeting light and movement – clouds, sunsets and trees. The sale includes several such sketches, among them a pen and ink drawing of trees near Otford in Kent (lot 35) and an Italian study of A House Amongst Trees in the Roman Campagna (lot 34).
Despite portraiture dominating his later career, Richmond continued to paint historical, literary and religious subjects. In 1872 he recorded the completion of three such works, including the small oil on paper The Red Cross Knight Slaying the Dragon (lot 23), inspired by Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene
Together the present nineteen lots offer a rare opportunity to study and acquire works that have remained largely unseen for nearly two centuries. Preserved within the family, they illuminate the breadth of Richmond’s career and provide an intimate view of one of the most distinctive and accomplished artists of the Victorian era.
George Richmond, Self-portrait, 1871
Property from the Family of George Richmond 20
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
THE SHEPHERD, 1827
line engraving, a rare impression on chine appliqué, second state with margins
17.4 x 11.3cm; 6 3/4 x 4 1/2in (plate)
30.1 x 24.9cm; 11 7/8 x 9 3/4in (sheet)
34.5 x 27.5cm; 13 3/4 x 10 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son Thence by descent to the present owners
Literature
Campbell Dodgson, The Engravings of George Richmond R.A., and Welby Sherman, in Print Collector’s Quarterly, XVII, 1930, pp. 353-61
Raymond Lister, George Richmond, A Critical Biography, London, 1981, pl. II, no.3, illustrated
Executed in 1827, the present line engraving is one of only a very few known impressions. The second of just two states recorded by Lister, the style and subject matter reflect both the influence of William Blake’s illustrations to Thornton’s Virgil and the landscape around Shoreham where he was living with Samuel Palmer. Palmer himself made an engraving of Richmond at work on the present print (Lister, pl. II, no. 5).
Richmond appears to have executed only two other prints, an engraving also from 1827 titled The Fatal Bellman, and an etching Portait of Masaccio after Filippino Lippi of 1844 (see Lister, p. 176).
£1,500-2,500
Property from the Family of George Richmond 21
GEORGE
RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
TWO LADIES (ROME) inscribed Rome, lower right pencil on buff paper heightened with white 43.7 x 28.3cm; 17 x 11 1/4in (sheet) unframed
Provenance
Estate of the artist Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son Thence by descent to the present owners
£700-1,000
Property from the Family of George Richmond 22
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
GIRLS AT A SPRING, A RECOLLECTION FROM NATURE signed and titled recollections from Nature / Geo Richm […] on a fragment of the original label on the reverse; inscribed Girls at a Spring / a recollection from Nature / by George Richmond. R.A. / from his collection on another label on the reverse oil on panel
26.3 x 18cm; 11 x 8in
36.5 x 28cm; 14 1/4 x 11in (framed)
Painted in the early 1830s.
Provenance
Estate of the artist Sale, Christie’s London, The Valuable Collection of Pictures of The Early English, Old Italian and Flemish Schools Formed By the Late George Richmond, R.A., Also A Selection Of The Works Of The Late George Richmond R.A., May 1, 1897, lot 76 Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son (purchased at the above auction) Thence by descent to the present owners
£1,500-2,500
23
Property from the Family of George Richmond 23
JOHN DOUGLAS MILLER (BRITISH 1860-1903)
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE RICHMOND AFTER THE SELF PORTRAIT PAINTED IN 1830 inscribed on the reverse George Richmond/ from a miniature painted/ by himself in 1830/ now in the possession of his/ eldest son T K Richmond/ copied by J D Miller/ 1897 watercolour on ivory gilt metal mount set into fitted leather case oval, 82mm; 3 1/4in high (Ivory successfully registered in January 2025)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Thomas Knyvett Richmond (1833-1901), the artist’s eldest son Thence by descent to the present owners
The present work, painted a year after the death of George Richmond, is a copy of the self-portrait miniature painted by Richmond in 1830. Richmond’s self-portrait miniature was purchased in 2001 by the National Portrait Gallery, London with the help of the Art Fund. £600-800
(actual size)
23 (framed)
Property from the Family of George Richmond 24
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
THE RED CROSS KNIGHT SLAYING THE DRAGON oil on paper
32.5 x 23.5cm; 12 3/4 x 9 1/4in
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Edith Richmond (1845-1934), the artist’s daughter
George Henry John Richmond (1889-1967), nephew of the above, a gift in 1926
Thence by descent to the present owners
Literature
George Richmond, the artist’s account book (unpublished), National Portrait Gallery, listed under 1872, p. 54
Raymond Lister, George Richmond, A Critical Biography, London, 1981, p. 101
Painted in 1872. Richmond recorded completing the present work in 1872, on p. 54 of his account book, writing: Painted small picture of red cross knight slaying the dragon. 1872 was further verified on a now lost label in Walter Coleridge Richmond’s handwriting, itself referred to in the hand written note by Peter John Inglis Richmond, great-grandson of the artist, attached to the backboard of the present work.
The subject of the Red Cross Knight Slaying the Dragon comes from Edmund Spenser’s epic poem
The Faerie Queene first published in 1590. Symbolically, the Knight represents holiness and St. George, while the dragon represents sin and the Devil. Richmond was a devout Christian, and his deeply held religious convictions had a profound influence on his work. This work harks back to the influence of Blake and the visionary subject matter of his fellow Ancients with its spiritual sentiment and atmospheric mystical quality.
£2,000-3,000
Property from the Family of George Richmond 25
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
HEAD OF A BEARDED MAN IN A BLUE ROBE oil on canvas
40.5 x 11.5cm (image)
42.5 x 14.5cm; 16 3/4 x 5 3/4in (canvas)
unstretched and unframed
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), son of the above
Thence by descent to the present owners
£400-600
Property from the Family of George Richmond 26
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
PORTRAIT OF LORD CREMORNE (STUDY FOR THE OIL) inscribed, Lord Cremorne/ Study for portrait, upper right black chalk heightened with red and white chalks on buff coloured card
56.5 x 45cm; 22 1/4 x 17 1/2in unframed
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son
Thence by descent to the present owners
Executed circa 1877 as a preparatory study for the portrait Richmond painted of Lord Cremorne (see Raymond Lister, George Richmond, A Critical Biography, London, 1981, Appendix I, A List of George Richmond’s Portraits, no. 193). A photograph of Lord Cremorne, 1st Earl of Daltrey (1817-1897) is in the Royal Collection. Cremorne was Lord-in-Waiting in the Royal Household 1857-1858 and 1859-1866.
£300-500
Property from the Family of George Richmond
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896) PORTRAIT OF JOHANN CHRISTIAN FISCHER (1733-1800)
inscribed Merlin Londini Fecit on the piano; inscribed by Peter John Inglis Richmond on a label attached to the stretcher, Portrait of Fischer the Composer/ & friend of Gainsborough. Copy by / GR of Gainsborough portrait at / Windsor Castle. Bt. by WCR at Sale / of GR’s Collection, Christie’s 1/5/1897 oil on canvas
42.5 x 31cm; 16 3/4 x 12 1/4in
46.5 x 35.5cm; 18 1/4 x 14in (framed)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Sale, Christie’s, Catalogue of The Valuable Collection of Pictures of The Early English, Old Italian and Flemish Schools Formed By the Late George Richmond, R.A., Also A Selection Of The Works Of The Late George Richmond R.A., 1st May 1897
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son (purchased at the above auction)
Thence by descent to the present owners
Gainsborough’s full-length portrait of Fischer was presented to King George IV by the Duke of Cumberland in 1809 and is in the Royal Collection. A friend of the German born composer and musician Johann Christian Fischer, Gainsborough recorded painting his portrait in 1774 in his Bath studio as a gesture of friendship rather than as a commission. In that year Fischer settled permanently in London and played frequently at Court becoming a member of the Queen’s Band. He wrote for and played the oboe and flute and was also an accomplished violin player.
£1,000-1,500
Property from the Family of George Richmond
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
STUDY OF A FEMALE NUDE WITH OUTSTRETCHED ARMS AND A KNEELING FIGURE
red chalk over pencil, the reverse with pencil sketches of a child’s arms and foot together with a sheet with two head studies in red chalk after the antique both 29 x 22cm; 11 1/2 x 8 3/4in (possibly from the same sketchbook) both unframed (2)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son
Thence by descent to the present owners
£300-500
Property from the Family of George Richmond
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
SAINT FRANCIS RECEIVING THE STIGMATA, AFTER A STUDY BY RAPHAEL OF CIRCA 1505
inscribed, after… of/ a study from nature/ by Raphael for a/figure of St Francis/ in the British Museum, lower right pen and brown ink on buff coloured paper 27 x 18.5cm; 10 1/2 x 7 1/4in together with another sheet of pen and ink figure studies, the reverse with a pencil drawing of a seated figure 22.5 x 18.5cm; 8 3/4 x 7 1/4in both unframed (2)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son
Thence by descent to the present owners
Raphael’s study in pen and ink had been in the collection of the collector Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824) who bequeathed it to the British Museum. It entered the museum’s collection the year of Knight’s death and is registered in the Prints and Drawings Department under acquisition number Pp, 1.64.
£500-700
Property from the Family of George Richmond 30
GEORGE RICHMOND AFTER RAPHAEL (BRITISH 1809-1896)
STUDY OF A NUDE MALE FIGURE, AFTER RAPHAEL
signed with initials and inscribed Venice lower right; inscribed Raffaello, lower left pencil and pen and brown ink on tracing paper
22.3 x 14.5cm; 8 3/4 x 5 3/4in (with arched top)
40.5 x 31.5cm; 16 x 12 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son
Thence by descent to the present owners
The present pen and ink drawing is after a drawing by Raphael in the Accademia, Venice. Since meeting and working together in Shoreham, Richmond and Palmer had long wished to visit Italy to improve their drawing by studying the art of the Renaissance masters. Starting out on October 4, 1837, Richmond, his wife Julia and their son Tommy together with Palmer and his wife embarked on an extended trip that lasted over two years, returning to England in late November 1839.
Together they travelled through France, Switzerland and northern Italy, arriving in Rome in November 1837, their base for much of their Italian sojourn. In June 1839, after ten days in Florence, Richmond parted from Palmer and set off with Julia for Venice arriving on 7th July. Here he wrote enthusiastically to Palmer about the ‘feast of art’ that he saw and what a great opportunity it was for him to be able to make copies both in colour and in pencil to study from, which would enhance his later work. Richmond and Julia left Venice on August 7th travelling back to England via Austria and Germany.
£400-600
Property from the Family of George Richmond 31
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
TWO HEAD STUDIES, AFTER RAPHAEL
signed with initials lower right; inscribed Portrait of Raffaelle from his own drawing in the Gallery at Venice lower centre pen and brown ink on wove paper
20 x 15.5cm; 8 x 6 11/4in
together with an unframed pencil, pen and ink sketch of a man with arms folded wearing a cap, doublet and high frilled chemise unframed
(2)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son
Thence by descent to the present owners
The drawing with two head studies is likely to date from July-August 1839 when Richmond and his wife Julia visited Venice. It appears to relate to Raphael’s self-portrait of 1506 in the Uffizi, Florence. However there is no known preparatory drawing by Raphael for his self portrait in the Galleria dell’ Accademia, Venice so it is unclear what Richmond was referring to in his inscription.
£600-800
Property from the Family of George Richmond 32
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
OTFORD CASTLE
signed with initials, inscribed Otford Castle and dated 1848 lower right pencil on buff paper
12.2 x 19.8cm; 4 3/4 x 7 3/4in together with two further pencil sketches, Merrow Downs and a landscape in Norfolk each signed with initials, variously inscribed, the second dated 1849 various sizes
51 x 31.5cm; 20 x 12 1/2in (framed as one)
(3)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son
Thence by descent to the present owner.
The sketch inscribed Otford Castle refers to Otford Palace in Kent, close to Shoreham, a magnificent Tudor palace built in the early 1500s for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Merrow Downs relates to the oil and tempera on panel titled Merrow Downs, Guildford that he painted in 1848 when staying in Guildford, Surrey on holiday with his family (see Raymond Lister, George Richmond, 1981, pl. XIV).
Although by the 1840s Richmond was established as a successful portrait painter, he was drawn to landscape and he regretted having to choose portraiture as his main source of income over developing his art in what he considered a more imaginative pursuit.
£500-700
Property from the Family of George Richmond 33
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
HOUSE AMONGST TREES (ROME)
pencil heightened with white and gold on buff coloured paper
29.3 x 27.5cm; 11 1/2 x 10 3/4in together with three further pencil sketches of the Italian landscape, two indistinctly inscribed… Olevano and Monte Cele various sizes all unframed (4)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son Thence by descent to the present owners
Richmond arrived in Rome with Julia, Tommy and the Palmers in mid-November 1837, Recording his impressions of the Eternal City with enthusiasm he noted: ‘The houses are taller the streets broader than any others I have seen excepting in London. The road wide paved and beautifully clean - and in the situation of this wonderful city I have been agreeably surprised. The Campagna although not cultivated is beautifully undulating and in some parts quite hilly and the range of mountains that surround this vast comparative plain give great beauty to the scene.’ (Lister, p.30)
Richmond and Palmer had long wished to visit Italy to study and copy the great masters. Richmond had written to Palmer suggesting ‘that a few of the bachelor Ancients should join forces and pittances, get to Italy as best they might and between them bring home such a stock of drawings for engraving in the Manner you described as would, independent of the improvement, amply repay our expenses of the journey and we should have the pleasing reflection of having benefited the Arts in England by it.’ (Lister, p.29)
£400-600
Property from the Family of George Richmond 34
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
TREES AND BUSHES, OTFORD MOUNT
inscribed, Otford - Mount, lower left
pen and brown ink and brown wash on wove paper
17.6 x 22cm; 7 x 8 3/4in unframed
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son Thence by descent to the present owner.
Otford is near Shoreham in Kent.
£500-700
Property from the Family of George Richmond 35
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
STUDY OF A TREE (RECTO); CARICATURE HEADS IN PROFILE (VERSO)
indistinctly inscribed lower right - recto pen and brown ink on paper - recto; pencil - verso 47.5 x 30.5cm; 18 3/4 x 12in (sheet) unframed
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son Thence by descent to the present owners
£200-300
Property from the Family of George Richmond 36
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
STUDY OF A STANDING MAN WITH BEARD AND LONG ROBES indistinctly inscribed,… Florence pen and brown ink on wove paper
23 x 9.5cm; 9 x 20 3/4in together with two further pencil studies of the head of the bearded man, inscribed Sketched from below, and a painting with a group of figures, annotated with colour notes various sizes mounted together unframed (3)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son
Thence by descent to the present owners
£300-500
Property from the Family of George Richmond 37
GEORGE
RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
SIX DRAWINGS INCLUDING STUDIES OF WORKS BY TITIAN, MICHELANGELO, ANNIBALE CARRACCI AND LUDOVICO CARRACCI, TAKEN IN THE CASA BUONARROTI, FLORENCE; PALAZZO SAMPIERI, BOLOGNA; BASILICA DI SAN DOMENICO, BOLOGNA; VENICE AND ROME each signed with initials and variously inscribed with detailed notes, two dated 1840 each circa 15 x 9cm; 8 x 7 1/2in all unframed (6)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son
Thence by descent to the present owners
£400-600
Property from the Family of George Richmond 38
GEORGE RICHMOND (BRITISH 1809-1896)
FIGURE FROM SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF NOAH, BY PAOLO UCCELLO IN THE GREEN CLOISTER OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA, FLORENCE
signed with initials and dated 1839 lower right; inscribed The figure driven by the force/ of the wind against the ark/ in a fresco of Paolo Uccello’s in the great court of the/ monastery of Sta Maria Novella, Florence./ Most of the works in this court have been retouched or unpainted/ and the rest are nearly obliterated, lower centre pencil on wove paper
23.5 x 16.5cm; 9 1/4 x 6 1/2in unframed
Together with five further sketches including a figure of Christ at Église Saint-Michel, Villefranche-sur-Mer; The Fallen Martyr, S. Maria Novella, and a group of apostles gesticulating each signed with initials and variously inscribed mounted on four sheets of paper, one with three drawings on one sheet each pencil on paper various sizes (6)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the artist’s son Thence by descent to the present owners
Richmond and his wife Julia left Rome for Florence arriving on 1st June 1839. Richmond made the most of the four months he stayed there, studying the great works of art and making sketches and notes in his diary, returning to Rome in early October.
£400-600
Property from the Family of George Richmond 39
HENRY WENTWORTH DYKE ACLAND (BRITISH 1815-1900)
VIEW OF THE COLOSSEUM WITH THE EASTER CROSS, ROME
signed and dated Henry Acland delnt 1858 and indistinctly inscribed lower right pencil on buff paper heightened with white 26.7 x 41cm; 10 1/2 x 16in unframed
Provenance
George Richmond
Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), son of the above
Thence by descent to the present owners
£100-200
Property from a Private Collection, North London
40
LEON BONVIN (FRENCH 1834-1866)
STILL LIFE WITH HOLLYHOCKS, CORNFLOWERS, POPPIES, WILLOWS AND BUTTERFLIES AT THE EDGE OF A WOOD
signed and dated Leon Bonvin 1865 lower left watercolour and gouache with gum arabic on paper
26.5 x 20cm; 10 1/2 x 7 3/4in
35 x 28.5cm; 13 3/4 x 11 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Clive Lloyd (1920-2004), Gomshall Gallery, Godalming, Surrey
Purchased from the above by the present owner circa 1969
Painted in the village of Vaugirard, just beyond the Paris city limits, the present re-discovered watercolour is among the last works Léon Bonvin completed. After his marriage to Constance Gaudon in 1861 and running the family inn, Léon’s financial situation had worsened. In early 1866 he travelled into the city to try to sell his recent work but with no success. In despair the artist hanged himself in the forest of Meudon on 31st January. He was thirty-one years old.
Daguerreotype of Léon Bonvin, courtesy of the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris
Bonvin left behind him his wife bereft, three young children and a small but utterly exquisite body of works on paper. For many years, other than at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore which holds half of Bonvin’s known output, his work has remained widely overlooked. All that changed however, in the recent revelatory exhibition devoted to the artist at the Fondation Custodia, Paris in 2022.
The exhibition, curated by the late Ger Luitjen and Gabriel Weisberg, featured some fifty-seven works – half of Bonvin’s entire recorded output - with loans from institutions and collectors around the world. The comprehensive catalogue includes a catalogue raisonné assembled by Maud Guichané fully documenting all the 116 known works by the artist. The majority are in museum collections, mostly in France and the USA. Ten early works are in the Louvre, Paris, while fifty-seven are in the Walters Art Museum. The reappearance of the present work, executed a year before Bonvin’s death, and described by Weisberg as ‘a great example’, thus marks an exciting addition to the artist’s corpus of work.
The youngest of nine children from his father’s second wife, Bonvin grew up in the family inn in Vaugirard known as the Bonvin de Bourgogne. A destination for Paris’s artists, actors and writers as well as the local workers, it was set amidst fields and open plains. Although naturally shy, Léon contributed to the in-house entertainment by playing music on his reed-organ. After his father’s death in 1862 he took on the role of inn-keeper and wine merchant.
Meanwhile, his half-brother François Bonvin, seventeen years his senior, encouraged him in his artistic development. For a while Léon attended classes at the Ecole Bachelier, Paris now the Ecole Nationale Supèrieure des Art Décoratifs where Weisberg suggests he may have come across Henri Fantin-Latour and Théodule Ribot, either direct or through his half-brother (Fondation Custodia, Léon Bonvin, Drawn to the Everyday, exh. cat., Paris, 2022, p. 22). There too he would have been exposed to the renewal of interest in still-life painting, in particular the work of Jean Simeon Chardin (1699-1779), who was such a strong influence on the Realist painters of the day.
The rustic interior and atmospheric surroundings of the Bonvin de Bourgogne are recorded in Léon’s exceptionally refined early black and white drawings, photographic in their quiet stillness. Outside Léon drew directly from nature, recording the flowers in the fields near his home with the eye of a botanist. By the 1860s, he had turned exclusively to watercolour, oil paint being too expensive, and from 1863 began working outdoors, recording flowers in their natural habitat as if living still-lifes, as evident in the present example.
Always small and intimate in scale, Léon’s works convey ‘a sense of monumentality that belies the size of the paper on which he painted’ (Gabriel Weisberg, The Drawings and Watercolours of Leon Bonvin, exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980, p. 62). In the present work he captures with forensic detail the plants, summer flowers and insects. The willow tree and surrounding undergrowth overshadow the small figure bent down working in the field in the background. It is the natural world which is centre stage, not man.
Despite his slim output and his lack of commercial success, by the time of his tragic end, Léon’s work was held in high regard. Among those who appreciated his extraordinary talent was the Baltimore collector William T. Walters, who started acquiring Bonvin’s work in quantity via the Paris agent George A. Lucas in the early 1860s. Following Leon’s death François organised a posthumous sale to support Constance and her young family. The list of contributors to the sale at Drouot in May 1866 is an extraordinary who’s who of 1860s realist painting and printmaking. Those who gave work to the sale included Félix Bracquemond, Jules Breton, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Charles-François Daubigny, Johan Barthold Jongkind, Jules Laurens, Ernest Meissonier, Claude Monet, Felix Nadar, Théodule Ribot, Antoine Vollon, Henri Fantin-Latour and François himself. In all there were eighty-eight contributors, testament indeed to an important and much-admired fellow artist; a deeply sensitive and hugely talented Van Gogh-like figure in the age of Realism.
£10,000-15,000
41
JOHN RUSKIN (BRITISH 1819-1900)
STUDY OF WOODLAND IN THE APENNINES, ITALY
inscribed APENNINES lower left pencil, pen and grey ink and grey and brown wash heightened with white on buff paper
45 x 28cm; 17 3/4 x 11in
75.5 x 64cm; 29 3/4 x 25 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Bonhams London, 19th March 2025, lot 18 (purchased by the present owner)
Executed circa 1845, the present work is one of a series of tree studies Ruskin completed in Italy at the time. Related examples are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Tate Britain, London.
£2,500-3,500
Property from a Private Collection, Ravenscourt Park.
42
EDWARD LEAR (BRITISH 1812-1888)
CAPO SANT’ ANGELI, AMALFI
pencil with touches of white on paper
11 x 17.5cm; 4 1/4 x 17 1/2in
25 x 31.5cm; 9 3/4 x 12 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd, London
Purchased from the above by the present owner in 1991
The present drawing of the dramatic cliffs of Capo Sant’ Angeli on the Amalfi coast was one of a series of works Lear completed to illustrate the poem The Palace of Art by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) first published in 1832. Comprising twenty-four quatrains, Tennyson’s verses describe the construction of a vast pleasure palace for the soul.
Lear’s depiction of Capo Sant’ Angeli illustrates verse sixteen: ‘One showed an iron coast and angry waves / you seemed to hear them climb and fall / and roar rock-thwarted under bellowing caves / Beneath the windy wall’ Variations on the drawing are in the collections of the National Gallery, Washington DC, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Lear lived in Rome, for a decade, from 1837-1847. Tennyson and Lear were friends over many years, frequently exchanging letters and verse. Lear was a frequent visitor to the Tennysons’ house Farringford, in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight, which attracted a host of other Victorian luminories including the photographer Julia Cameron, critic and artist John Ruskin and the painter Danté Gabriel Rossetti.
£800-1,200
Property from a Private Collection 43
EDWARD PRITCHETT (BRITISH (fl) 1828-1876)
THE GRAND CANAL WITH THE DOGE’S PALACE; THE RIALTO BRIDGE,VENICE - A PAIR both watercolour on paper each 21 x 31.5cm; 8 1/4 x 12 1/2in each 38.5 x 48cm; 15 1/4 x 19in (framed) (2)
Provenance
Hilary Richmond (1925-2014)
Thence by descent to the present owner
£600-800
Property from a Private Collection, Gerrards Cross 44
CHARLES-CLÉMENT CALDERON
(FRENCH 1870-1906) ON THE LAGOON, VENICE signed C. Calderon lower right oil on canvas
36 x 53cm; 14 1/4 x 20 3/4in
50.5 x 67.5cm; 20 x 26 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Frost & Reed, London
Purchased by the father of the present owner in the 1960s
£2,000-3,000
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 45
GEORGE GARRARD (BRITISH 1760-1826)
THE EARL OF ORFORD’S ELK FROM NORWAY, HIS ANTELOPE FROM AFRICA AND HIS STAG FROM PRINCE’S ISLAND oil on canvas
52 x 75.5cm; 20 1/2 x 29 1/2in
70 x 95cm; 27 1/2 x 37 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Christie’s, London, 22 July 2009, lot 142
Purchased at the above sale
Garrard specialised as an animalier, and delighted in painting animals from foreign countries that were largely unknown in England. The present work is a preparatory oil for the large scale version painted for the 4th Earl of Cholmondeley at Houghton Hall, exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in 1801.
£700-1,000
46
ITALIAN SCHOOL (LATE 17TH CENTURY)
TRAVELLERS WITH PEASANTS RESTING oil on canvas
24.5 x 24.5cm; 9 1/2 x 9 1/2in unframed
£400-600
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
47
BEN HERRING JR (BRITISH 1830-1871) THE PHAROAH’S HORSES (AFTER JOHN FREDERICK HERRING SR)
signed B. Herring lower right oil on canvas
61 x 61cm; 24 x 24in
91 x 91cm; 35 3/4 x 35 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s Olympia, 25th January 2007, lot 36
Purchased at the above sale
£600-800
Property from a Private Collection, North London
PAUL ALPHONSE VIRY (FRENCH 1832-1915)
FEEDING THE BIRDS
signed, inscribed and dated PAUL VIRY 1880 PARIS lower left
oil on panel
48.5 x 60cm; 19 x 23 1/2in
63 x 73.5cm; 24 3/4 x 29in (framed)
Provenance
Cooling Galleries, London
Mrs Julie Goodman, London (by 1960)
By descent from the above to the present owners
£3,000-5,000
Property from a Private Collection, North London
JOAQUÍN LUQUE ROSELLO (SPANISH 1865/66-1932)
ENTERTAINING THE PRELATE
signed and inscribed J Luque Roselló / Roma lower left oil on canvas
46.5 x 68.5cm; 18 1/4 x 27in
61 x 83cm; 24 x 32 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Cooling Galleries, London
Mrs Julie Goodman, London (by 1960)
By descent from the above to the present owners
£1,800-2,500
Property from a Private Collection, North London
50
THOMAS FAED (SCOTTISH 1826-1900)
THE MENDICANT MAID signed and dated Faed.1858 lower right oil on canvas
76 x 50.5cm; 30 x 20in
92 x 66cm; 36 1/4 x 26in (framed)
Provenance
Purchased by the father of the present owner in the 1980s
£3,000-5,000
Property from a Private Collector, Jersey, The Channel Islands
51 MORTIMER MENPES (AUSTRALIAN/BRITISH 1855-1938)
A RETAINER FROM CUTCH
signed Mortimer Menpes lower left oil on panel
41.5 x 32.5cm; 16 1/4 x 12 3/4in unframed
Provenance
Acquired by the present owner in 2000
Literature
Mortimer Menpes, The Durbar (text by Dorothy Menpes), London, 1903, pl. 32, illustrated in colour
Painted in 1903 following Menpes’ travels in India during the Delhi Durbar - the celebration of King George VII and Queen Alexandra as Emperor and Empress of India between 29th December 1902 and the 10th January 2003.
During the Durbar Menpes was especially captivated by the regional costumes of royal retainers, the Indian tribesmen loyal to the British monarch. He featured some twenty illustrations of retainers and their massed processions in his book Durbar, with chapter five devoted to the Procession of Retainers. Writing of the spectacle he noted (in Dorothy’s words) that ‘One broad sweep of changing, glittering colour was stretched out before us for mile upon mile, formed of clumps of retainers from the tribes of India. There were tribes from Cashmere, from the highlands and the lowlands, camels, elephants, men in armour, animals in armour, and costumes of every conceivable colour and form.’ (Menpes, 1903, p. 71).
Menpes had first visited India in 1890. For the Durbar he was the guest of the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, and reported on the ceremonies and festivities for the Pall Mall Gazette, The Illustrated London News and Punch magazine.
‡ £10,000-15,000
MORTIMER MENPES (AUSTRALIAN/BRITISH 1855-1938)
STUDY OF A GIRL, PROBABLY THE ACTRESS PHYLLIS DARE
signed Mortimer Menpes lower right watercolour on paper mounted on board
31 x 40cm; 12 1/4 x 15 3/4in
48 x 57cm; 19 x 22 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, London Olympia Auctions, 11th June 2025, lot 14
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
Menpes painted the child star Phyllis Dare (1890-1975) on several occasions, and her likeness appears twice in Menpes’ illustrated book World’s Children, once under the title English, May Blossom and again under the title French, Phillis. The book features over one hundred of Menpes’ illustrations with a text by his daughter Dorothy. It was published in London by A & C Black in 1903. We are grateful to Scott Buckle for identifying the sitter.
£800-1,200
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
FELIX BARRIAS (FRENCH 1822-1907)
MOTHER AND CHILD
signed and dated Felix. BARRIAS.’85
upper right oil on canvas
116 x 75cm; 45 1/2 x 29 1/2in
138 x 98cm; 54 1/4 x 38 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Acquired prior to 1990
Barrias was known for his historical and religious paintings and murals, popular genres in the second half of the nineteenth century. Close stylistically to William Bouguereau (1825-1905), his academic training earned him commissions for church frescoes at Saint-Eustache in Paris, the Grand Hôtel du Louvre and the Chapel of Saint Geneviève in the church of Sainte-Trinité.
Together with other leading painters of the day, including Bouguereau, Gérome and Tissot, he was commissioned in the 1860s to contribute to an album of works on prayer compiled by William Thompson Walters, the influential art collector from Baltimore, USA. In 1868 Barrias was commissioned to paint The Legend of the Golden Fleece on the ceiling of Drapers’ Hall in the City of London, returning in the 1880s to paint interior decorations for the Mercers’ Hall, another livery company in the City. With the rebuilding of Paris according to Baron Haussman’s visionary plan, new civic buildings needed decoration with mythological scenes glorifying the French nation. In such spirit Barrias was employed to paint murals to embellish the interiors of Charles Garnier’s Paris Opera.
A small watercolour sketch of the present work dedicated by Barrias to Mme Violet le Duc recently appeared at auction in France.
£4,000-6,000
Property from a Private Collection 54
EDWARD HENRY POTTHAST (AMERICAN 1857-1927)
THE SWIMMING HOLE, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK
signed E Potthast lower right; signed Edward H Potthast, titled The Swimming Hole and inscribed with the artist’s address in New York on the stretcher oil on canvas
39.5 x 49.5cm; 15 1/2 x 19 1/2in
57.5 x 67.5cm; 22 3/4 x 26 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Davis & Langdale, New York
Potthast’s painting of three boys taking a dip in one of the pools in Central Park, New York breaks with his signature beach scenes to embrace the fresh water and surrounding lush greenery of the city’s new recreational space established in the late 1850s. Central Park was the first public space to be laid out by the celebrated landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted introduced the distinctive rock formations that are such a feature of the park and which are prominent in the current composition. There are similarities in both palette and subject matter with Potthast’s immediate contemporary and fellow American John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), whilst the darker hues are reminiscent of Potthast’s days at the Munich Akademie.
With the end of the Civil War in 1865 America enjoyed an extended period of economic prosperity. New found wealth gave rise to an affluent and leisured middle class with time on their hands to enjoy themselves. With increased possibilities of travelling to Europe too, American collectors were instinctively drawn to Impressionist painting, appreciating the swift energetic brushstrokes and light-filled canvases. Beyond France the style was adopted by a host of other painters, most of whom had been schooled in different ateliers in Paris and artists’ colonies around the country, amongst them the influential American painter Childe Hassam (1859-1935) and the Spanish impressionist Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923). Like these and so many of his contemporaries, Potthast sought to capture in his work the leisure time of America’s newfound wealth creators.
£6,000-8,000
Property from a Private Collection
55
EDWARD HENRY POTTHAST (AMERICAN 1857-1927)
YOUNG GIRLS ON THE BEACH
signed E Potthast lower right oil on canvas
29.5 x 39.5cm; 11 3/4 x 15 1/2in
47.5 x 57.5cm; 18 3/4 x 22 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Maxwell Galleries, San Francisco
The present work is typical of Potthast’s Impressionist beach scenes for which he became so admired. Bright colours and dazzling sunlight ripple across the shore as two girls play in the water as another rests upon a rock. Potthast became a master of capturing leisurely moments with painterly fluency, infusing his canvases with light and colour.
A student at Cincinatti’s McMicken School of Design from the precocious age of eleven, he was taught by the portrait painter Thomas Satterwhite Noble (1835-1907). In 1881 he travelled to Europe, enrolling at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich where he was taught by Carl von Marr (1858-1936), a master in the skillful handling of realistic depictions of light and shade. On his second visit to Europe in 1886 he travelled to the artists’ colony at Grez-sur-Loing. There he befriended fellow American Robert Vonnoh (1858-1933) and Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940) from Ireland. The fluid and gestural brush strokes of both painters made an immediate impact on Potthast’s own developing impressionistic style, as he started to record sun-dappled landscapes and summer scenes with broken brushwork in brilliant colours.
Returning to America, in 1895 he moved to New York where he set up a school of painting. As well as describing the bustling city street scenes that he encountered on a daily basis, from his New York studio he could also easily access coastal resorts such as Coney Island in Brooklyn and Far Rockaway in Queens. In the holidays he journeyed further afield, his preferred destination being the New England coastline. There he explored the beaches of Monhegan and Ogunquit Islands in Maine and Gloucester Harbour and Cape Ann in Massachusetts, locations that appear frequently in his canvases. He regularly exhibited his paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Academy of Design of which he became an Associate.
£6,000-8,000
Property from a Private Collection, Ravenscourt Park
56
CHRISTIAN ZACHO (DANISH 1843-1913)
RIVIERA DE FIORI
signed and dated Chr Zacho 1910 lower right oil on canvas
51.5 x 77cm; 20 1/4 x 30 1/4in
77 x 102.5cm; 30 1/4 x 40 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Christie’s, 14th June 1996, lot 117
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
£800-1,200
Property from a Collector, London 57
JOHN ALFRED ARNESBY-BROWN RA (BRITISH 1866-1955)
WINTER EVENING
signed Arnesby Brown lower left oil on canvas
49 x 59cm; 19 1/4 x 23 1/4in
65.5 x 76cm; 25 3/4 x 30in (framed)
Provenance
Fine Art Society, London
Purchased from the above by the present owner in October 1974
Exhibited Venice, XIXth Biennale, 1934
⊕ £5,000-7,000
Property from a Private Collection, Stratford-on-Avon
58
ALFRED DE BREANSKI II (BRITISH 1877-1957)
ABINGDON ON THAMES
signed A. de Breanski Jun. lower right oil on canvas
49.5 x 75cm; 19 1/2 x 29 1/2in
71.5 x 97cm; 28 1/4 x 38 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Leslie Mellon, Dublin (acquired in the 1980s)
Thence by descent to the present owners, grandchildren of the above
⊕ £800-1,200
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
59
THOMAS CRESWICK RA (BRITISH 1811-1869)
CROSSING THE FORD
signed T. Creswick lower right oil on canvas
70 x 90cm; 27 1/2 x 35 1/2in
93 x 113cm; 36 1/2 x 44 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Christie’s London, 22nd July 2009, lot 120
Purchased at the above sale
£1,000-1,500
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
60
ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS CRESWICK RA (BRITISH 1811-1869)
A DROVER WITH CATTLE AND DOG
signed Thos Creswick lower right oil on canvas
60 x 88cm; 23 1/2 x 34 3/4in
74 x 104cm; 29 1/4 x 41in (framed)
Provenance
E.A. Robinson, Belfast
Sale, Sotheby’s London, 25 January 2007, lot 64
Purchased at the above sale
£700-900
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
61
JOHN FREDERICK HERRING JR (BRITISH 1815-1907)
CATTLE, GOATS AND HORSES BY A STREAM AT SUNSET
signed J.F. Herring lower left oil on canvas
29 x 39cm; 11 1/2 x 15 1/4in
41 x 51.5cm; 16 x 20 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Alex Fraser Galleries Ltd, Vancouver
Sale, Bonhams London, 20th March 2007, lot 24
Purchased at the above sale
£1,200-1,800
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 62
JOHN CLAYTON ADAMS (BRITISH 1840-1906)
EVENING REFLECTIONS
signed and dated J CLAYTON ADAMS 1887 lower right oil on canvas
104 x 150cm; 41 x 59in
133 x 179cm;
52 1/4 x 70 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Christie’s London, 22 July 2009, lot 26
Purchased at the above sale
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1887, no. 696
£1,000-1,500
Property from a Private Collection, Stratford-on-Avon 63
FREDERICK HALL (BRITISH 1860-1948)
VILLAGE STREET, NEWLYN, CORNWALL signed Fred Hall lower left oil on canvas
44 x 54.5cm; 17 1/4 x 21 1/2in
66 x 76cm; 26 x 30in (framed)
Provenance
Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin
Leslie Mellon, Dublin (acquired from the above in the 1980s)
Thence by descent to the present owners, grandchildren of the above
In this early work Fred Hall brings an almost photographic luminosity to painting en plein air. A leading member of the Newlyn School in Cornwall in the mid-1880s alongside Stanhope Forbes (1847-1957) and Frank Bramley (1857-1915), like others in Newlyn Hall was influenced by the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848- 1884), in particular his social realist themes and his use of a square brush.
£3,000-5,000
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 64
WILLIAM SIDNEY COOPER (SCOTTISH 1854-1927) SHEEP BY A LOCH signed and dated W. Sidney. Cooper.1899 lower left oil on canvas
76.5 x 126cm; 30 1/4 x 49 1/2in
110 x 160cm; 43 1/4 x 63in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Christie’s Edinburgh, 26th October 2006, lot 48
Purchased at the above sale
£1,500-2,500
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
EMILE-GUSTAVE COUDER (FRENCH 1845-1903)
STILL LIFE OF FRUIT, GLASS AND OTHER VESSELS
signed and dated E. Gve Couder.1890 lower right oil on canvas
93 x 148cm; 36 1/2 x 58 1/4in
105.5 x 161.5cm; 41 1/2 x 63 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s Paris, 20th October 2005, lot 98
Purchased at the above sale
£3,000-5,000
Property from a Private Collection, North London 66
CECIL KENNEDY (BRITISH 1905-1997)
(I) CAMELIAS;
(II) RHODODENDRON FRAGRANTISSIMUM, AZALEAS AND HONEYSUCKLE - A PAIR
each signed Cecil Kennedy lower right both oil on canvas
each 36.5 x 28.5cm; 14 1/4 x 11 1/4in each 50.5 x 44cm; 19 3/4 x 17 1/4in (framed) (2)
Provenance
MacConnal-Mason & Son Ltd, London
Purchased from the above by the father of the present owner by 1990
⊕ £3,000-5,000
Property of a Lady, Hampshire
ALBERT RUTHERSTON (BRITISH 1881-1953)
THE RIVER AT BILLY-SUR-ALLIER, FRANCE
signed A. Rothenstein. lower right; signed and inscribed THE ALLIER AT BILLY / A. Rutherstein / Savile Club / 107 Piccadilly on a label on the reverse oil on canvas
44.5 x 59.5cm; 17 1/2 x 23 1/2in
54.5 x 69cm; 21 1/2 x 27 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
The Leicester Galleries (Ernest Brown and Phillips Ltd), London
Samuel Hammersley
Thence by descent to the present owner, grand-daughter of the above
Painted circa 1904-1905, when Rutherston visited Billy-sur-Allier near Clermont-Ferrand in France on painting trips with Spencer Gore (1878-1914) over two consecutive summers.
Rutherston (born Rothenstein) joined the Slade School of Art aged just sixteen in its late 19th century heyday, when Fred Brown was professor, assisted by Henry Tonks, Philip Wilson Steer and Walter Russell. There he fell in with a gilded set of artists, befriending Augustus John and William Orpen. His elder brother, William Rothenstein, dubbed them the ‘Three Musketeers’.
Rutherston, John and Orpen first visited France together in the summer of 1899, staying in Vattetot, along the Normandy coast from Etretat, where they were joined by William and Charles Conder. A succession of holiday painting campaigns followed. Another view of Billy-sur-Allier with the river in the background painted by the artist in 1905 was sold at Olympia Auctions on 14th June 2023, lot 40.
£1,000-1,500
Property from a Collector, London
SIR FRANK BRANGWYN RA (BRITISH 1867-1965)
SPANISH LANDSCAPE
signed twice with initials, lower left and lower right oil on board
31 x 42cm; 12 1/4 x 16 1/2in
48.5 x 60cm; 19 x 23 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
The Fine Art Society, London
Purchased from the above by the present owner in December 1976
The present view may well be of Cuenca, between Valencia and Madrid in Castille, or possibly a view of Toledo. Brangwyn first travelled to Spain in 1890, attracted to the country’s vibrant colours and light. He returned in 1892 with the artist Arthur Melville (1855-1904), capturing the spirit of Orientalism and the bright colours of Saragossa and traversing the Canal Imperial de Aragon aboard the Santa Maria. The lightened palette that Brangwyn adopted in Spain helped grow his international success. Brangwyn returned to Spain with Lucy his wife in May 1911.
⊕ £4,000-6,000
Property from a Private Collection, Ravenscourt Park.
69
HELEN ALLINGHAM (BRITISH 1848-1926)
IN THE NORTH DOWNS, SURREY
signed and dated H Allingham. May.76 lower left watercolour
20 x 36.5cm; 8 x 14 1/4in
44 x 62.5cm; 17 1/4 x 24 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Arthur Tooth & Sons, London
Purchased by the present owner in the early 1990s
Allingham (née Paterson), started working as an illustrator for the Graphic and Cornhill magazines before turning to paint watercolours of idealised views of country dwellings and cottage gardens, which quickly grew in popularity. In 1874 she married the Irish poet William Allingham (1824-1889), who introduced her to a whole new group of friends from the Cheyne Walk set, including Lord Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin, the latter becoming a great admirer of her work. In 1881 the couple moved to the Surrey Hills near Witley where she further honed her skills capturing local rural life.
£1,500-2,500
Property from a Private Collection, Ravenscourt Park 70
DAME LAURA KNIGHT RA (BRITISH 1877-1970)
RAINBOW OVER THE MALVERN HILLS
signed Laura Knight lower right watercolour and charcoal on paper
30 x 46cm; 11 3/4 x 18in
54.5 x 70cm; 21 1/2 x 27 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Phillips London, 20th March 2001, lot 358
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
From 1933 Laura Knight and her husband, the painter Harold Knight (1874-1961) were frequent visitors to Malvern and fell in love with the dramatic landscape of the nearby hills which became a subject of her paintings. The Knights made an annual visit to the Malvern Festival which had been established by their friend Barry Jackson. During one of their visits, they met George Bernard Shaw and painted his portrait.
Knight claimed she did her best landscapes in Malvern and her paintings from this period demonstrate her love of the countryside in all seasons. She would start her day with a walk over the Hills, setting up make-shift open-air studios around the hills to work from, and then meet fellow artists to take the fabled Malvern spring water.
Created a Dame of the British Empire (DBE) in 1929, the first female artist to be so honoured, in 1936 she became the first woman to be elected a Royal Academician since Angelica Kaufmann in the eighteenth century.
⊕ £1,500-2,500
Property from a Deceased Estate, London
71
ARCHIBALD THORBURN (SCOTTISH 1860-1935)
WOODCOCK, FIRST ARRIVAL
signed and dated Archibald Thorburn 1906 lower left watercolour on paper
39 x 54cm; 15 1/2 x 13 1/2in
57.5 x 72cm; 22 3/4 x28 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Acquired by the grandfather of the present owners, an avid ornithologist who knew the artist’s niece, circa 1960 Considered one of the most popular painters of his generation in British wildlife among ornithologists and naturalists, Thorburn’s ability to empathise with birds in their natural surroundings likely derives from his upbringing in Scotland. He was born in Dumfries and his father, Robert Thorburn (1818-1885), was miniaturist to Queen Victoria.
Thorburn’s reputation was established in 1887 when he was commissioned to illustrate Lord Lilford’s Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Isles for which he produced some 300 watercolours. From then on Thorburn illustrated many sporting and natural history books including his own, Birds of Prey, British Birds and A Naturalist’s Sketchbook. The first of his famous RSPB Christmas cards was produced in 1899 and became an annual tradition throughout his life. As well as birds he painted many sketches of mammals, flowers, fungi and insects. Working mostly in watercolour, his work was particularly influential on artists Otto Murray-Dixon (1885-1917) and Philip Rickman (see lots 104 & 105).
As evident in the present composition, Thorburn took a narrative approach to his work, showing the bird’s habitat, the weather conditions and the wider surroundings such as the foaming sea in the background. The setting conveys the harduous journey a woodcock undertook from the Continent, possibly from as far as Finland or Russia. He positioned the bird sheltering behind the dunes, having arrived safely to winter in Scotland, its wing spread on the side for us to admire the softness of the plumage and the intricate patterns in many shades of brown of the feathers.
£8,000-12,000
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 72
ARTHUR WARDLE (BRITISH 1864-1949)
LIONS IN THE SAVANNAH
signed Arthur Wardle lower left charcoal and pastel on buff paper
34.5 x 51cm; 13 1/2 x 20in
62 x 78cm; 24 1/2 x 30 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s Olympia, 21st March 2007, lot 57
Purchased at the above sale
£800-1,200
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 73
ARTHUR WARDLE (BRITISH 1864-1949)
THE RIVAL PRIDE
signed Arthur Wardle lower right charcoal and pastel on buff paper
38 x 60cm; 15 x 23 1/2in
56 x 77cm; 22 x 30 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s Olympia, 21st March 2007, lot 56
Purchased at the above sale
£800-1,200
Property from a Private Collection, Kensington Olympia 74
PAUL GAUGUIN (FRANCE 1848-1903)
LEDA, PROJET D’ASSIETTE, 1889
zincograph, on simile Japan paper with wide margins 44.5 x 32.5cm; 17 1/2 x 13in (sheet size) (unframed)
Provenance
Cecil Max Michaelis, London
By descent from the above to the present owner in the mid-1980s
Literature
Eberhard Kornfeld, Paul Gauguin, Catalogue raisonné of his Prints, published by Galerie Kornfeld, 1988, no.1
The present work is from the second edition of circa 50 impressions published by Ambroise Vollard after 1900. The subject was the cover for the portfolio of 10 zincographs that Gauguin first showed at the Café des Arts on the Champ de Mars during the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889. Inspired by his recent travels in Brittany, Martinique and Arles, and known as the Volpini Suite (named after the cafe’s owner), the series is considered to be Gauguin’s first experiments in printmaking. Gauguin promoted the exhibition under the banner title Groupe Impressioniste et Synthetiste. Other artists who exhibited with him included Charles Laval, Louis Anqutin, Emile Schuffenecker and Emile Bernard.
£600-800
PABLO CURATELLA MANES (ARGENTINIAN 1891-1962)
THE DOUBLE BASS PLAYER bronze
signed MANES and stamped with the foundry mark C. VALSUANI cire perdue on the base height: 60cm; 23 1/2in
Provenance
Purchased by the present owner circa 2010
In 1912 Pablo Manes arrived in Paris from Buenos Aires on a scholarship, settled in Montparnasse and studied under Aristide Maillol and Antoine Bourdelle. He returned to Paris after the First World War, established his first atelier, married French painter Germaine Derbecqre in 1922 and enjoyed life as a sculptor at the heart of the avantgarde. A creative and very productive period followed, which included the sculpting of a series of musicians including The Guitarist, The Accordionist, and The Double Bass Player - the present work. The multi-faceted volumes and angular forms of each reflected the strong influence of Cubism, and in particular his close association with Juan Gris, Fernand Léger and Albert Gleizes. In 1926 he took up a post at the Argentinian Embassy in Paris whilst also working as a sculptor. Reappointed to the embassy in 1939 as ‘chargé d’affaires’, Curatella oversaw the repatriation of Argentinian nationals following the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.
£4,000-6,000
Property of a Private Collector, London
76
JOAN MIRO (SPANISH 1893-1983)
EL INOCENTE (1974)
signed Miró lower right; numbered 48/170 lower left etching and aquatint in colour
32 x 24cm; 12 1/2 x 9 1/2in
49 x 39.5cm; 19 1/4 x 15 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Purchased in Paris by the present owner in the early 1980s
In the mid-1970s Miro collaborated with Spanish writer Xavier Domingo (1929-1996) on an album combining prints and text.
⊕ £1,500-2,500
Property of a Private Collector, London 77
JOAN MIRO (SPANISH 1893-1983)
EL INOCENTE (1974) – A PAIR
(i) signed Miro lower right; numbered 19/45 lower left; (ii) signed Miro lower right; numbered 1/15 lower left both etching printed in colours each 32.5 x 22.5cm; 12 3/4 x 8 3/4in each 47.5 x 38.5cm; 18 3/4 x 15 1/4in (framed) (2)
Provenance
Purchased in Paris by the present owner in the early 1980s see note to previous lot
⊕ £1,500-2,500
Property from a French Private Collector
78
ALFRED MANESSIER (FRENCH 1911-1993)
UNTITLED (ABSTRACT)
signed and dated Manessier ‘53 lower right oil on canvas
27 x 46cm; 10 1/2 x 18in
49.5 x 68.5cm; 19 1/2 x 27in (framed)
Provenance
Joris van Riel, Paris
Thence by descent to the present owner in 2004, son of the above
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Christine Manessier, the artist’s daughter
In the years following the Second World War Manessier emerged as one of the most prominent painters of abstraction lyrique in Paris and a leading advocate for the renewal of sacred art in France. The artist discovered his strong religious convictions on a three-day retreat with the writer Camille Bourniquel at the abbey of Notre Dame de la Trappe de Soligny (Orne) in 1943. There he felt the rigour of the Cistercian Trappist order and the link between its services and the rhythms of days, nights and the seasons. The monks’ chants inspired perhaps his greatest early painting, Salve Regina (1945), a work constructed with vertical slabs of singing reds, oranges and blues.
Manessier adopts a not dissimilar primary colour scheme in the present work. Horizontal lines positioned like staves of music are punctuated by black notes against bright yellow and red within a tightly ordered composition, calling to mind the work of Paul Klee. His interest in the sacred tradition of painting was encouraged by Georges Rouault (1871-1958) in whose work Christian subject matter had long been a central motif. Rouault saw the potential for Manessier’s oils to be translated into glass. In 1948 Manessier received his first stained glass commission for the church of Saint-Agathe des Bréseux, near Besançon. It marked the beginning of an extended period of collaboration between the painter and master glassmakers, as well as between the artist and the realm of religious art.
Manessier had grown up in Abbeville, inspired by the light and seascapes of the Bay of the Somme. He studied in Amiens and then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where he at first pursued a career in architecture while copying the Renaissance masters at the Louvre. He also frequented the Montparnasse ateliers and the Association of Revolutionary Writers and Artists. In 1935, at the Académie Ranson, Manessier’s tutor Roger Bissière introduced him to fresco techniques and the French romanesque. The artist first worked on murals as part of the team of Robert and Sonia Delaunay for the Railway Pavilion at the Paris World Fair of 1937. During the War he exhibited in the clandestine exhibition Twenty Young Painters of the French Tradition, held in defiance of the Nazis at the Galerie Braun in May 1941. It took place under the auspices of Jeune France, a liberal branch of an organisation finally dissolved by the Vichy government in March 1942.
After the War Manessier was selected as one of seven artists to exhibit his works as part of the French Pavilion at the 25th Venice Biennale in 1950. Further accolades followed: in 1953 he was awarded First Prize for painting at the São Paolo Biennale; in 1955 he received the Grand Prize for painting by the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, and in 1962 he was the recipient of the Grand Prize for painting at the Venice Biennale.
⊕ £6,000-8,000
79
CISSIE KEAN (BRITISH 1871-1961)
AUTMUN LEAF
with the studio stamp on the reverse oil on canvas
53.5 x 45cm; 21 x 17 3/4in
73 x 64cm; 28 3/4 x 25 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Acquired from the above by the present owner
circa 2000
Exhibited
London, Whitford Fine Art, Cissie Kean, 2002, no.1
⊕ £1,200-1,800
PIETRO LAZZARI (AMERICAN/ITALIAN 1898-1979)
UNTITLED -
ABSTRACT COMPOSITION
signed Pietro Lazzari lower right oil on canvas
54 x 65cm; 21 1/4 x 25 1/2in
72 x 83cm; 28 1/4 x 32 3/4in (framed)
Painted circa 1940.
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Lazzari studied at the Scuola di Arti Ornamentali in Rome, became an illustrator for the local newspaper Il Messaggero and had his first exhibition at the ‘Theatre of the Independents’. Mixing with the Italian Futurists, including Balla, Boccioni, Marinetti and Severini, he spent time in Paris, but with the rise of Facism in 1925 he made the first of several visits to the USA, remaining there permanently from 1929.
His work was included in 1926 in an exhibition of nine European artists alongside Picasso, Modigliani, Gauguin, Douanier Rousseau and Jules Pascin at the New Gallery, New York. Lazzari subsequently worked for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), developing innovative methods of painting and casting in coloured concrete and sharing a studio with Mark Rothko. In 1935 his work was included in Abstract Painting in America at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Others represented included Arthur Dove, Arshile Gorky, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keefe and Max Weber.
In the mid-1930s Lazzari was commissioned by the US State to produce high quality site-specific murals and sculpture for new federal buildings. Max Weber singled out Lazzari for an award, commenting on the artist’s ‘touch of an uncommon personality’. His Bleeding Civilian, a life-size concrete polychrome, featured in the Artists for Victory exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, New York in 1942.
Moving to Washington DC, he taught at the American University and showed with Caresse Crosby. After the War he showed at the 1947 Venice Biennale and was taken on by the Betty Parson’s Gallery, New York. Parsons recalled that Lazzari ‘has a very original feeling for materials of all kinds… [and] is a magnificent draughtsman’. In 1950 he received a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue research in various media.
During the 1960s he produced a series of portrait sculptures, including of Pope Paul VI (Vatican Collection) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Franklin Roosevelt Library, New York) and benefited from exhibitions of his work in Europe and the USA including at the Corcoran Biennal, the Rome Quadriennal, the Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.
⊕ £3,000-5,000
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF KARSTEN SCHUBERT
(LOTS 89 & 90)
Born in Berlin, Karsten Schubert (1961-2019) was a pioneer gallerist in London in the 1980s, opening doors of opportunity to many artists associated with the Young British Artists (YBAs). He began his career at the Lisson Gallery, one of the few London galleries then offering space to fresh artistic talent, and with backing from dealer Richard Salmon opened his own gallery on Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia at the age of 25.
His very first exhibition featured the work of Alison Wilding and, following on from Damien Hirst’s Freeze show of 1988, Karsten began representing Goldsmith graduates Gary Hume, Michael Landy and Ian Davenport. Karsten typically gave his artists free reign to create. In 1992 the exhibition Closing Down saw Michael Landy fill shopping trolleys with cheap tat emblazoned with banners: ‘Cor What a Bargain’ and ‘Everything Must Go.’ Equally outlandish was Anya Gallacio’s project in which she covered the gallery interior with chocolate. But although groundbreaking and inspiring such exhibitions proved uncommercial, and Karsten was obliged to relocate to smaller premises on Foley Street.
Teaming up with Thomas Dane and Charles Asprey, in 1995 Karsten established Ridinghouse Editions . The imprint focused first on publishing artist’s prints and then art history and theory including a number of artists’ monographs. Karsten moved his gallery to Lexington Street, Soho and began representing such artists as Bridget Riley and Tess Jaray. Diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2015, while recovering from surgery he wrote a semi-autobiographical book, Room 225-6: A Novel. The book was published by Ridinghouse, with the proceeds going towards research into robotic surgery.
Property from the Estate of Karsten Schubert
89
ALISON WILDING RA (BRITISH B.1948)
ON THE ROOF
signed with initials and dated 86; signed again, dedicated and dated Karsten / from / Alison / 2016 on the underside of the base
Jesmonite
height: 7cm; 2 3/4in
Executed in 1986.
Provenance
A gift from the artist to the late owner in 2016
The present work is made in Jesmonite, a composite material consisting of a mineral-based powder combined with a water-based acrylic resin, quite close to plaster but giving greater aesthetic versatility and used here in a playful way by ironically positioning the snail on top of a roof with a smooth finish.
Wilding was the subject of Karsten Schubert’s first ever show as an independent gallerist and was represented by him for over thirty years. She came to prominence in the 1980s as one of a group of sculptors including Richard Deacon and Antony Gormley. She is known for her abstract sculptures, from small scale to large installations, and embraces a wide range of materials and processes. Born in Blackburn, she studied at Nottingham College of Art in the late 1960s and at the Royal College of Art from 1971 to 1973. Twice shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1988 and 1992, she lives and works in London.
⊕ £300-500
Karsten Schubert (© Eammon McCabe / The Guardian)
JOHN VIRTUE (BRITISH B.1947)
TWO SKETCHBOOKS (I & II)
(i) brush and ink and grey and purple wash (92pp); (ii) brush and ink and charcoal with grey and purple wash (64pp); (both black cloth hardback)
(i) 14.5 x 14.5cm; 5 3/4 x 5 3/4in (ii) 10.5 x 10.5cm; 4 1/4 x 4 1/4in (2)
Virtue typically works in monochrome, calling colour ‘unnecessary distraction’; his preferred medium is drawing in pen and brush and ink. The present two sketchbooks contain a variety of spontaneous calligraphic sketches in brush and ink, the wet pages folded together to imprint on the page opposite to create a mass of frenzied forms.
Born in Accrington, Lancashire, Virtue studied at the Slade in the late 1960s under Frank Auerbach and Euan Uglow. His many influences included the 19th century painters Constable and Turner and the moody, detailed line-based drawings and watercolours of Samuel Palmer. In the 1970s and 1980s Virtue worked at Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, the subject of much of his work, before moving to Devon and producing work around the Exe estuary on the south coast. He was Associate Artist at the National Gallery from 2003-2005 and his work is in major public collections worldwide. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Tate St Ives, the Yale Center for British Art and the National Gallery in London.
⊕ £300-500
Property from a Deceased Estate 91
MALCOM MORLEY (BRITISH/AMERICAN 1931-2018)
PARROTS
signed and dated Malcolm Morely ‘78 lower right
watercolour on paper
76 x 56.5cm; 30 x 22 1/4in
104 x 83cm; 41 1/4 x 32 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
Morley was the very first winner of the Turner Prize in 1984. It followed the huge success of his retrospective show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1983. He studied at Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London in the 1950s at the same time as Frank Auerbach and Peter Blake. Unable to fix on one style but visually extravagant and vibrant, Morley moved from Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism to Hyperrealism and Neo-Romanticism with an impulse to constantly reinvent his work. Morley moved to New York in 1958, where he met American artists Barnett Newman, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. In the 1970s, he taught at the School of Visual Arts and Stony Brook University in New York.
⊕ £1,500-2,500
92
WILLIAM
GEAR (BRITISH 1915-1997)
CONTAINED LANDSCAPE
signed Gear ‘63 lower right; signed, titled and dated Gear / JUNE-JULY 63 / “CONTAINED LANDSCAPE” on the reverse oil on canvas
100 x 69.5cm; 39 1/4 x 27 1/2in
107.5 x 77cm; 42 1/4 x 30 1/4in (framed)
Provenance
Douglas and Foulis Art Gallery, Edinburgh Acquired by the present owner circa 2015
Exhibited
Edinburgh, Douglas and Foulis Gallery, William Gear, 1963 Eastbourne, Towner Art Gallery; Edinburgh, City Art Centre, William Gear 1915-1997: The painter that Britain forgot, 2015-2016
Literature
Andrew Lambirth, William Gear, Bristol, 2015, p. 294, no. 313, illustrated ⊕ £4,000-6,000
93
ALAN DAVIE RA (BRITISH 1920-2014)
OPUS O.1143 MANIFESTACTIONES
ARTISTIOAS NO 2
signed, titled inscribed and dated MANIFESTACTIONES ARTISTIOAS / NO 2 / 1988 / 30 x 38INS / OPUS O. 1143 / alan Davie88 on the reverse; titled and dated on the stretcher oil on canvas
76 x 96.5cm; 30 x 38in
79.5 x 99.5cm; 31 1/4 x 39 1/4in (framed)
Provenance Gimpel Fils, London
⊕ £1,200-1,800
94
ALAN DAVIE RA (BRITISH 1920-2014)
SIX HOOKS OPUS O.2179/ 2010 signed, titled and dated alan Davie 2010 / SIX HOOKS / OPUS O.2179 on the reverse oil on canvas
76 x 96.5cm; 30 x 38in
79.5 x 99.5cm; 31 1/4 x 39 1/4in (framed)
Provenance Gimpel Fils, London
⊕ £1,000-1,500
⊕ £400-600 95
95
WILLIAM GEAR (BRITISH 1915-1997)
PURPLE, YELLOW AND BLACK ABSTRACT signed Gear ‘75 lower right acrylic on paper
37.5 x 55.5cm; 14 3/4 x 22in
61.5 x 78.5cm; 24 1/4 x 31in (framed)
Property from a Collector, London 96
DAME TRACEY EMIN (BRITISH B.1963)
MOTHER / BROTHER (2010)
signed, dated and numbered Tracey Emin
74 /100, 10 in pencil lower margin etching
15 x 21cm; 6 x 8 1/4in
32 x 36.5cm; 12 1/2 x 14 1/4in (sheet) unframed
Provenance
Acquired from the artist by the present owner circa 2010
⊕ £600-800
Property from a Collector, London 97
DAVID BOWIE (BRITISH 1947-2016)
BRITISH CONFLICTS (1995)
roll of wallpaper printed in colours width: 53cm; 21in
Provenance
Acquired from the London Gallery by the present owner in 1995
⊕
£1,500-2,500
Property from a Collector, London 98
DAVID BOWIE (BRITISH 1947-2016)
THE CROUCH (1995)
roll of wallpaper printed in colours width: 53cm; 21in
Provenance
Acquired from the London Gallery by the present owner in 1995 Lots 97 & 98 were designed by Bowie for his first solo art exhibition New Afro Pagan Work: 1975-1995 at the London Gallery on Cork Street in 1995. Printed in a very small limited edition in collaboration with Laura Ashley exclusively for the exhibition, and neither for sale nor commercially available, the papers were incorporated into Bowie’s installation piece District 6 featuring a box made up of African hairdressing advertisement boards. Sections of the papers were also hung as framed prints. Bowie’s design for British Conflicts features a charcoal portrait of the painter Lucien Freud, inside a Damien Hirst style box; The Crouch depicts drawings of a minotaur against a large concrete block.
⊕
£1,500-2,500
Property from a Collector, London 99
BARBARA
RAE (BRITISH B.1943)
UNTITLED
signed Rae lower right gouache and watercolour with gold and silver on paper
16 x 21cm; 6 1/4 x 8 1/4in
28.5 x 34cm; 11 1/4 x 13 1/2in (framed)
Provenance
Acquired from the artist by the present owner in 2012
⊕ £800-1,200
Property from a Collector, London 100
CHRIS OFILI (BRITISH B.1968)
COUPLE
signed and dated OFILI / 2014 lower left watercolour and black crayon on paper
25.5 x 19.5cm; 10 x 7 3/4in
41 x 33cm; 16 x 13in (framed)
Provenance
Purchased in New York by the present owner circa 2015
⊕
£3,000-5,000
Property from a Private Collection, Mayfair 101
ARTURO DI STEFANO (BRITISH B.1955)
DEMOLITION SITE
signed, titled, inscribed and dated A. Di Stefano. / Demolition site, Mill Street, SE1. / 1996 on the reverse; A. Di Stefano. / Demolition site, Mill Street, SE1. 1996 on the stretcher oil on canvas
183.5 x 195.5cm; 72 1/4 x 77in unframed
Provenance
Purdey Hicks Gallery, London
Purchased from the above by the present owners in 2001
⊕ £800-1,200
Property from a Private Collection York 102
MARGARET GREEN (BRITISH 1925-2003) ON THE BEACH
signed M Green lower left oil on canvasboard
50 x 60.5cm; 19 3/4 x 23 3/4in
62 x 73cm; 24 1/2 x 28 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Hazel Vincent Wallace OBE, Barnes (acquired prior to 1995; Wallace, 1919-2019, was an actor and theatre manager who founded the Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead in 1969)
Thence by descent to the present owner, cousin of the above
⊕ £800-1,200
Property from a Deceased Estate 103
KEN HOWARD RA (BRITISH 1932-2022) MORNING LIGHT, IN THE STUDIO
signed Ken Howard lower right oil on canvas
90 x 75cm; 35 1/2 x 29 1/2in
106.5 x 91cm; 42 x 35 3/4in (framed)
Provenance
Richard Green Gallery, London
Purchased by the late owner from the above circa 2007
⊕ £5,000-7,000
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 104
PHILIP RICKMAN (BRITISH 1891-1982)
TWENTY-TWO PARROTS AND PARAKEETS IN SIX FRAMES, INCLUDING THE MALLEE RINGNECK, PAPUAN KING, ELECTUS AND ROSELLA PARROTS each signed and dated Philip Rickman 1969 each watercolour and gouache on blue paper
each 49 x 38cm; 19 1/4 x 15in
60 x 49.5cm; 23 1/2 x 19 1/2in (framed) (6)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s Olympia, 25th January 2007, lots 167 & 168
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
⊕ £1,000-1,500
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey 105
PHILIP RICKMAN (BRITISH 1891-1982)
TEN PARROTS IN FIVE FRAMES, INCLUDING EIGHT ROSELLA AND TWO LUTINO RINGNECK PARROTS four signed and dated Philip Rickman 1968, one unsigned all watercolour and gouache on blue paper each 49 x 38cm; 19 1/4 x 15in 60 x 49.5cm; 23 1/2 x 19 1/2in (framed) (5)
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s Olympia, 25th January 2007, lots 167 & 168
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner ⊕ £1,000-1,500
Acland, H W D 39
Adams, J C 62
Calder, A and Ascher, Z 81
Allingham, H 69
Arnesby-Brown, J A 57
Barrias, F 53
Bawden, E 83-86
Bonvin, L 40
Bowie, D 97, 98
Brangwyn, F 68
Calderon, C - C 44
Collier, E 6
Cooper, W S 64
Couder, G E 65
Cradock, M 7
Creswick, T 59, 60
Curatella Manes, P 75
Davie, A 93, 94
De Breanski, A F II 58
Di Stefano, A 101
Emin, D T 96
English School 13
Faed, T 50
French School 3, 9
Garrard, G 45
Gauguin, P 74
Gear, W 92, 95
German School 4
Green, M 102
Hall, F 63
Hamilton Mortimer, J 18
Henry Potthast, E 54, 55
Herring Jr, B 47
Herring Jr, J F 61
Howard, K 103
Italian School 11, 12, 16, 46
Kean, Cisse 79
Kennedy, Cecil 66
Knight, L 70
Koekkoek, M A I 15
Lazzari, P 80
Lear, E 42
Luque Rosello, J 49
Luttichuys, I 5
Mannessier, A 78
Mellin, A-I 14
Menpes, M 51, 52
Miller, J D 23
Miro, J 76, 77
Monnoyer, J-B 10 Morely, M 91
Ofili, C 100
Plumb, J 88
Pritchett, E 43
Rae, B 99
Richmond, G 20-38
Rickman, P 104, 105
Robins, B 87
Ruskin, J 41
Rutherston, A 67
Sluyter, P 19
Smargiassi, G 17
Thorburn, A 71
Van Falens, C 8
Van Rijn, R 1, 2
Virtue, J 90
Viry, P A 48
Wardle, A 72, 73
Wilding, A 89
Wou-Ki, A 82
Zacho, C 56
