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David Brooker

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EMILE GODCHAUX

ALFRED RICHARDSON BARBER

A selection of some of the new inventory that we’ve found on our travels throughout the world.

All the paintings are fully guaranteed and are all in fine condition.

362 PEQUOT AV, SOUTHPORT, CT 06890, 203 232 2807 66 DOODS PARK ROAD, REIGATE, SURREY, RH20PY 07807 851498 EMAIL;DBART1967@HORMAIL.COM WWW.DAVIDBROOKER.COM

Possibly a portrait of the artist wife.

Oil on card, 18 x 21 inches.

Sir James Jebusa Shannon was one of the outstanding Society Portraitist of his day, his success lay in an ability to paint portraits that appealed to the prevalent aesthetic taste and these paintings reveal his artistic sensibility, fine sense of color and stylistic bravura.

Born in Auburn, New York, of Irish parentage, the family had settled in St Catherines, Ontario, by 1875 and Shannon took his first art lessons from a local artist, William E Wright. In 1878 he traveled to England and studied at the National Art Training School under Sir Edward Poynter. As Poynter's most gifted pupil, he received commissions from Queen Victoria in 1881 and 1882, and although he had intended to return to the United States, the success of his early works persuaded him to remain in London. In 1886 he married Florence Mary Cartwright and a year later their daughter Kitty was born. He painted them on many occasions and in these more intimate and informal works he expressed his true artistic talent.

During the mid 1880s, Shannon, together with his fellow American compatriot John Singer Sargent, dominated the field of British portraiture. Shannon's popularity was encouraged by the patronage of Violet Manners, later Marchioness of Granby, and he became the Manners family's favorite artist.

Shannon was a prominent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He was a founder member of the New English Art Club in 1886, became a Royal Academician in 1909, was President of the Royal society of Portrait Painters from 1910-1923 and was knighted in 1922.

Following his death, memorial exhibitions were held at the Leicester Galleries in London and the Albright Art Gallery and the Cincinnati Museum, USA. Provenance; Granddaughter of the artist, Guernsey

John Bates Noel ! 27 x 23 inches fl. 1893 - 1909 !

Born in Malvern in Worcestershire, John Bates Noel (also known as John Bates) was born into a highly artistic family. David Bates, an artist in both oil and watercolour and specialised in depicting Welsh and Scottish landscapes, was a close relative. Like David Bates, Noel painted in the style of his fellow Birmingham School followers, Joseph Thors and William Henry Mander. His composition is informal and his brushwork is fluid and loose, conveying a wonderful sense of movement. Like Joseph Thors, his landscapes often incorporated elements of interest such as country dwellings, farm houses, farmyard animals and informal figure groups.

Ernest Borough Johnson 20 x 24 inches He studied at Slade and Herkomer's at Bushey, and subsequently became Professor of Fine Art at London University's Bedford College and Chelsea Polytechnic respectively. He was a teacher of life painting and drawing at London School of Art and the Byam Shaw School. Married to the artist Esther GEORGE, by 1917 he lived at Westbourne Gardens, Hyde Park, London.

James Webb ! 23 x 31 inches

James Webb was born and lived all his life in Chelsea, London. He was a landscape painter specialising in coastal and port scenes.

Webb painted scenes in England, Wales, Holland, France and along the Rhine. He painted figures and buildings with as much competence as he did landscape backgrounds, and his paintings have a feeling of tranquility and harmony to them. Webb used pale colours, but painted in a robust naturalistic style. He was influenced by J. M. W. Turner.

He exhibited in London from 1850 to 1888. He had works at the Royal Academy (29), the Royal Society of Artists Gallery at Suffolk Street, The British Institute,. His works are represented in The Tate, The Victoria and Albert Museum.

Joseph Thors 13 x 16 inches Joseph Thors was a landscape painter who lived in London but also painted in the Midlands, where he is regarded as a member of the Birmingham School. His landscapes are mainly rustic cottages, figures and animals, painted in a style similar to that of the Norwich School.

Naturalistic landscape painting was the fundamental aim of both the Norwich and Birmingham Schools. Thors was quite prodigious in his output.

Thors was a draughtsman of peaceful little spots of nature, with their little hidden homesteads and winding paths, which he represents, in a refined and contemplative mood.

Joseph Thors exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution and Suffolk Street between 1863 and 1900.

Antoine Blanchard 19 x 24 inches Antoine Blanchard was born in a village near Blois on the banks of the River Loire in 1910. His father had an important joinery business and was well known in the area. Perhaps it was through watching his father carving wood and producing fine craftsmanship that the artistic spirit was kindled in the young Blanchard. Soon his parents were actively encouraging Antoine by sending him to Blois for drawing lessons. They realised that this would only give him the rudiments and to achieve a successful artistic career he would need expert guidance. For this reason he was sent to Rennes to attend classes at the School of Beaux Arts.

He studied for three years and developed a remarkable drawing skill, which was to prove invaluable in later life.

Sadly, Antoine Blanchard's artistic hopes were put aside when he had to take over the family joinery business left to him by his father. He painted occasionally for pleasure, but had to refuse many important commissions from art dealers as business pressures were so great. He eventually retired from business and moved to Paris, where he lived until his death. Antoine Blanchard took no interest in the aspects of modern life and always depicted the elegance of life in Paris in the early 1900s.

Arthur Gilbert 13 x 15 inches Arthur Gilbert Frederick Williams was the fourth son of Edward Williams. He was born the same year as Queen Victoria, in the Stoke Newington district of London on 19 December 1819. This painter of canvases in the grand and solemn manner was a gentle, amiable person and a most devoted family man. His wife, Elizabeth, whom he married at St Martin in the Fields in 1843 died five years later of tuberculosis, leaving him with their daughter, Kate.On 28 June 1854, at the Parish Church, Barnes he married Sarah Godfrey, the daughter of a clerk. Their only son Horace Walter Gilbert was born the following spring, on 6 April 1855. Both of Arthur’s children inherited a talent for art and later exhibited their work. Arthur Gilbert had addresses in Weybridge and Hammersmith, but lived for seventeen years in Lonsdale Terrace, Barnes, very near to the home of his father and several of his brothers. In 1873 he moved to Redhill and from there to De Tillens, a large house in Limpsfield, Surrey. This was Gilbert’s home for many years, including a considerable time after the marriage of H. H. Gilbert, whose work contains some very fine watercolours of this house.

George Hyde Pownall 11 x 13 inches

Empire Lester Square, London

Hyde Pownall was a painter of evocative London Street scenes, often at night. Like many artists of the period very little is known of his career, although he is known to have painted very attractive, usually small pictures of London. He painted in the tradition of John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) and James Abbott McNeil Whistler, PRBA (1834-1903) combining the effects of fine detail with the loose manner of impressionism.

Hyde Pownall painted many of the high spots of London such as the Law Courts in Chancery Lane, along the Thames, St Paul’s and the Café Royal in Regents Street, often frequented by the likes of Oscar Wilde and other literary dandies of the fashionable set.

Hyde Pownall had the great gift of painting atmospheric views at a time when both the horse and motorcar were commonplace and the streets of London were lit by gaslight.

He also worked in Australia, and examples by him are in the Melbourne City Council.

Tomas Martin Rebollo 16 x 10 inches Tomás Martín Rebollo was born in Calle de San Juan de los Reyes in Albaicín, Granada, in 1858. Fortuny's stay in Granada was a key factor in the young artist's development, as it stimulated his passion for water colours, and when the great artist left for Italy in October 1872, he enrolled at the School of Fine Art in Granada, already giving his profession as artist. At the School he was taught by the painter Julián Sanz del Valle, a very different teacher from Fortuny. At the age of eighteen he exhibited at the brilliant exhibition held in Granada in 1876 and was awarded a silver medal. The following year he presented some water colours at the exhibition the Sociedad Económica dedicated to King Alfonso XII on the occasion of his visit to the city and he prepared the watercolour design for the membership diploma the Society presented to the King.

Martín moved to Madrid, keen to find new horizons and widen his knowledge. He joined the Fine Arts Circle, attended classes in watercolour painting there and took part in its first exhibition in 1880 with Larrocha, another Granada-born painter. He returned to Granada in summer 1882 and it was at this time that an English newspaper praised his watercolours of themes linked to Granada and his copy of a portrait. His shy, modest character did not help him to make his way in the local art world, so he returned to Madrid.

Sir David Murray 34 x 46 inches Sir David Murray RA (29 January 1849 in Glasgow, Scotland – 14 November 1933 in Marylebone, England) was a well known Scottish landscape painter. He worked for eleven years for two mercantile firms, while studying in the evenings at the Glasgow School of Art under Robert Greenlees, finally devoting himself full-time to an artistic career from about 1875. He became an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1881, moving to London in 1882 where he was an immediate success. His 'My Love has gone a-Sailing' exhibited in 1884 was purchased by the Chantrey Trustees for the Tate Gallery.

In 1891 Murray was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and a full member of the Royal Academy in 1905. About 1886 he broadened his horizons and travelled to the continent. Murray was a member of Glasgow Art Club and exhibited in the club's annual exhibitions. He became president of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1917; the year before he was knighted in 1918.

Jean Carolus 44 x 54 inches Jean Carolus was a Belgian Painter of genre scenes and interiors. He was a pupil of Francois Joseph Navez, the Director of the Academy of Fine Art in Brussels. Carolus spent much of his life living and painting in France. His reputation is based on his depictions of figures set in interior scenes; indeed , he is known for his jewel-like quality and high degree of finish which he achieves in these works. He combines the grace and elegance of his figures with strong use of colour.

He worked in France and it was there that he painted various interiors and one of his best known is a picture entitled ‘A game of billiards with Louis XV’ which hangs in the Museum at Ypres. Other titles include ‘The Proposal of Marriage, ‘The Artists Studio’ and ‘The Letter’. His works have been sold in auction in Europe, the UK and the United States.

Walter Follen Bishop 24 x 32 inches Walter Follen Bishop was a Liverpool artist, though he also lived in both London and Jersey. He was fascinated by the play of light on leaves, bracken, lichen and rocks. He managed to combine meticulous detail with a sense of atmosphere.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1882-1902 works such as Where moorland and forest meet, 1884, no. 992, The last rays of sunlight on forest and moor, 1885, no. 1318 and The wood with morning sunlight crowned, 1890, no. 1319 and also at Suffolk Street. He married the painter and sculptress Florence Fitzgerald (fl.1887-1927) who also exhibited at the Royal Academy works entitled By the Meadow Brook and Where the Wild Flowers grow and at Suffolk Street.

Roy Petley 20x 24 inches Petley paints en plein air to depict the wide expanse of English beaches and the gentle allure of Venetian landscapes. His works have been likened to those of John Constable, Edward Seago, and Campbell Mellon, British painters whose styles were influenced by the Barbizon School and Impressionism.

Beginning life in a children's home, he became one of the first artists to open an art gallery in Cork Street, a prestigious street lined with art galleries in London's Mayfair. His works are popularly collected by British royalty, including Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

John Menzies 28 x 32 inches Menzies was a wonderful painter in the traditional British Impressionist manner. A story telling painting in the Impressionist palette .Born in Scotland Menzies went to England to study art where he became influenced by the Newlyn School of Impressionist painters as well as the late 19th century French painters.His work is very rare and few examples turn up. This piece is in excellent condition and came from a fine collection in Maryland.

Dorothea Sharp 24 x 21 inches Dorothea Sharp was born in Dartford in Kent in 1874 but it was not until the age of twenty-one that she began her artistic education in earnest. She first studied at the art school run by C. E. Johnson in Richmond, Surrey and later spent some time at the Regent Street Polytechnic. She soon moved to Paris where she was greatly influenced by the work of the Impressionists, which is evident in the spontaneous style and strong sense of colour and light that she is so well known for. Techniques, such as outlining figures with bright colours, were also adopted by Sharp after seeing the paintings of Matisse and van Gogh.Sharp exhibited regularly throughout her career at many institutions including the Royal Academy. She was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1907 and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1922 and also was President for four years of the Society of Women Artists. She held her first one woman show at the Connell gallery in 1933.Dorothea Sharp was a landscape and still life painter but is best known for her pictures of children which are frequently shown on the beaches of Cornwall where she lived near St. Ives. The artist died on 17th December 1955.
 Museums: Johannesburg, Auckland, Belfast and Manchester.

Marco Grubacs 11 x 17 inches

Venice Marco Grubacs studied painting and drawing from an early age and his keen attention to draftsmanship insured his success as a painter of architectural views. He came from a famous family of painters with Carlo and Giovanni being other important family painters.

They all specialized in Venetian scenes and in doing so they continued the great tradition of the fine and 18th Century artists such as Canaletto and Guardi.

This is a very fine example of the artists work and is in excellent condition.

Edward Hoyer 14 x 20 inches Edward Hoyer was an English marine painter from the late 19th century. His work was always of the finest quality with a very particular skill in the sea.

Hoyer travelled throughout Europe and painted many scenes of the Marine ports of the Mediterranean.

This is a very fine example of the artists work having all the skill of an artist with great talent and knowledge of the subject.

Benjamin Eugene Fichel 24 x 31 inches Ben Fichel entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1844 and became a pupil of Hippolyte Delaroche, but painted very much more under the inspiration of Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, whose exquisite handling is suggested in numerous small canvases of his which by their refined technique and vivid action recall the characteristic intensity and directness of composition which belong to the painter of “Friedland.” Along with great care in finish, Fichel's canvases also exhibit an archæological exactness, and a kind of delicate humor. His first work of importance was exhibited in 1850, “Harvey Demonstrating the Circulation of the Blood to Charles I.” He was a chevalier of the Legion of Honor and, in 1857, received a medal for his painting in the Salon of that year. He exhibited a canvas every year at the Salon, up to a few years before his death.

Mounseer with Trainer, George Dockeray up

33 x 38 inches Harry Hall was one of the foremost sporting painters of the Nineteenth century. A contemporary of John Frederick Herring Harry Hall achieved renown as a painter of sporting subjects, hunting scenes and as a painter of hunters and thoroughbreds amongst these being some of the great racehorses of the period. As a testament to his success and popularity sixty of his horse portraits were engraved and one hundred and fourteen plates after his paintings appeared in the Sporting Magazine. Harry Hall lived in St John’s Wood, London at the time of his first exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1838, moving to Great Queen Street in Covent Garden in 1844 and subsequently to Newmarket, home to so many of his patrons and subjects.

Hall continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy to 1864 and in addition exhibited at the British Institution and the Royal Society of British Artists at Suffolk Street. Hall was in great demand throughout his career receiving numerous commissions to paint the favourite horses of country gentlemen, and, in addition, portraits of the gentlemen themselves. 


Back Cover Gimeno, Spanish, Circa 1890, Oil on panel 14 x 9 inches

All photos copyright David Brooker Fine Art