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PORTRAITS & MINIATURES
249*AR Buhler (Robert, 1916-1989). Portrait of Robin Fedden, pastel on paper, head and shoulders portrait of a sandy-haired man half-turned to the right, wearing a white shirt, and blue jacket and tie, signed upper right, 53 x 41cm (20.75 x 16ins), framed and glazed Primarily a painter of places, Robert Buhler is also much praised for his portraits, which are characterised by simple and uncluttered design with the use of strong tones. He received many commissions but most of all enjoyed painting friends from London’s artistic and literary circles. Among his sitters were Steven Spender, Ruskin Spear, Barnett Freedman, John Davenport, John Minton and Francis Bacon. Henry Robin Romilly Fedden, CBE, (19081977) was an English writer, diplomat and mountaineer. He was the son of artist Romilly Fedden and novelist Katherine Waldo Douglas, and cousin to artist Mary Fedden who taught at the Royal College of Art alongside Robert Buhler. He served as a diplomat in Athens and taught English Literature at Cairo University, where he became part of the literary group of Cairo poets, and co-edited the literary journal ‘Personal Landscape’ with Lawrence Durrell and Bernard Spencer. After the second world war he worked for the National Trust, rising to the post of Deputy Director-General. He wrote a number of books on a variety of different subjects, his best-known being ‘The Enchanted Mountains: A Quest in the Pyrenees’ and ‘Chantemesle’. (1) £200-300
Lot 250
250* Davidson (E. M.). Half-length portrait of a woman, Edwardian oil on canvas, signed upper left, 50 x 41cm (19.75 x 16ins), framed (1)
£200-300
251* De Hem (Louise, 1867-1922). Portrait of a young woman, oil on canvas, head and shoulders portrait of a young woman with dark hair and enigmatic gaze, signed upper right ‘Louise de Hem, Paris’, some over-cleaning, 46 x 37.5cm (18 x 14.75ins) Belgian artist Louise de Hem was initially tutored by her sister’s husband, artist Théodore Ceriez (1831-1904), who noticed her talent. After exhibiting her first work in 1885 she went to Paris to study further where, at the private Académie Julian, she painted living and sometimes nude models (which was at that time in Belgium still forbidden for women). In 1891 she returned to Ypres where she began painting still lifes and receiving commissions for portraits. She exhibited widely, being the only Belgian painter to exhibit at the Women’s Exhibition in London in 1900, and in 1904 she won a gold medal in Paris for her painting ‘The Japanese Doll’. £150-200 (1)
Lot 251
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