'Hera' by Eduard Niczky (1850-1919). A fine 19^th century neoclassical portrait of the Greek queen of the gods depicted in her golden diadem and yellow robe. The painting is signed by the artist and hangs in a newly commissioned, bespoke gold metal leaf frame. All our paintings are sold in the finest condition they can be for their age having been professionally cleaned, conserved and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Eduard Niczky trained at the Kassel Art Academy before moving to Munich in 1871 to study under Arthur von Ramberg at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Over the next 30 years he built an international reputation of as gifted and versatile painter of historical subject pictures, portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Dimensions: (framed) 67cm x 87cm (26½” x 34¼”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 49½cm x 69½cm (19½” x 27¼”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private UK collection. Presentation: Newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf frame. All of the new frames we commission are especially made for us to order by one of the UK’s top period frame makers. Condition: Excellent. Professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

'The Enchantress' by Nathaniel Sichel (1843-1907). The painting - which depicts a dark-haired beauty wearing a crown of holly - is signed by the artist and hangs in a superb quality carved and gilded Orientalist frame. In Celtic mythology holly is the ruler of the darker half of the calendar year known as the White Realm, in other words winter. The holly berry is also a potent Pagan symbol of feminine sexuality.

• For a comprehensive account of the life and work of Nathaniel Sichel visit the News & Articles page.

Nathaniel Sichel initially studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin before enrolling at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Sichel’s success in the 1864 Prix de Rome with ‘Joseph explains the Dreams of the Pharaoh’ made his reputation as a painter of Orientalist subjects. During the 1860s and 70s Nathaniel Sichel became one of the most popular portrait painters in Germany and a leading artist of the Orientalist School, making a speciality of well-drawn and elegantly painted figures. All our paintings are offered for sale in the finest condition they can be for their age having just been professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 77cm x 102cm (30¼” x 40¼”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 55cm x 73cm (21½” x 28¾”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private collection. Presentation: Fine quality carved and gilded Orientalist frame. Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

'Calvary' by Pietro Sassi (1834-1905). This monumental exhibition oil painting – which depicts the Light of Heaven shining upon Christ at Calvary with thousands of people outside the city of Jerusalem – is signed and inscribed by the artist and hangs in a newly commissioned gold metal leaf frame. Please note the large dimensions of this painting (details below). Pietro Sassi was an eminent Italian painter of subject pictures and epic vedute scenes of Rome and the Campagna. Between 1863 and 1887 Sassi’s exhibited in Milan, Venice, and Turin, and in 1883 at the inaugural exhibition of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni Nazionali di Belle Arti in Rome. The English author and art historian Brian Sewell was an admirer of Pietro Sassi and his painting ‘The Arch of Titus’ formed part of his famous collection. Today, paintings by Pietro Sassi can be found in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 139cm x 218cm (55” x 86”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 120cm x 200cm (47¼” x 78¾”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private European collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.

‘Othello recounting his adventures to Desdemona and Brabantio’ by Robert Alexander Hillingford (1828-1904). The painting – which depicts Shakespeare’s Venetian general, his lover Desdemona, and her senator father – is signed by the artist and hangs in a newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf frame. Robert Alexander Hillingford was a highly successful Victorian painter of historical and literary scenes who became most famous for his portrayals of the Napoleonic Wars and the plays of Shakespeare. Amongst his patrons Robert Hillingford counted many of the most famous art collectors of the 19^th century including Thomas Baring of the famous banking dynasty, the King of Württemberg, Prince Michel Kotchoubey, and many of the newly monied industrialists of Manchester and Halifax. Between 1864 and 1902 Hillingford exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists in London. ‘The Hillingford Chronicles’, a detailed account of the life and work of the artist, can be found at the News & Articles section of the Academy Fine Paintings website. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 71cm x 96cm (28” x 37½”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 51cm x 76cm (20” x 30”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private UK collection. Presentation: Newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf frame. All of the new frames we commission are especially made for us to order by one of the UK’s leading period frame makers. Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘Regina dei Fiori’ by Frédéric Soulacroix (1858-1933). The painting – which depicts an aristocratic Italian beauty sitting beside a porcelain vase full of peonies – is signed by the artist and presented in a superb quality hand-carved giltwood frame. In ancient Chinese culture the peony symbolizes love and beauty (as well as wealth and aristocracy). Soulacroix’s colour choice for both the flowers and her luxurious silk gown also references Oriental symbolism; the apricot traditionally representing female elegance. All our paintings are offered in the finest condition they can be for their age having been newly professionally cleaned, conserved and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. The son of the eminent French sculptor Charles Soulacroix (1825-1899), Frédéric Soulacroix was born in Rome in 1858. Aged 15 he began studying at the Accademia di Belle Arte in Florence and afterwards at the Scuola di Pittura in 1876. This was an auspicious time to be an artist working in Florence which, by the 1880s, had become the cultural capital of Italy. Like his contemporaries Vittorio Reggianini (1858-1938) and Arturo Ricci (1854-1919), Frédéric Soulacroix’s skilfully executed subject pictures of elegant 18th century beauties became very fashionable and were enthusiastically bought by the city’s wealthy art patrons. In the 1890s Soulacroix was commissioned by King Umberto of Italy to paint his wife Queen Margherita and by the 1920s his popularity across Europe and North America was such that he was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and awarded the Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French government. Dimensions: (framed) 93cm x 73cm (36½” x 28¾”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 62cm x 42cm (24½” x 16½”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private collection. Presentation: Superb quality hand-carved giltwood frame. Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘Young Beauty holding a Red Rose’ by Étienne Adolphe Piot (1831-1910). The painting is signed by the artist and hangs in a fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Étienne-Adolphe Piot moved to Paris whilst still in his teens to study with the influential French artist and teacher, Léon Cogniet (1794-1880). Cogniet’s studio at this time would have been a thrilling place, populated by burgeoning talents such as Léon Bonnat (1833-1922), Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911), and Pierre Auguste Cot (1837-1883), all of whom – with Piot – would become some of the greatest painters of the female form in the history of art. Piot’s particular genius lay in his masterfully drawn and beautifully lit depictions of the female face, most frequently set against a dark background. As illustrated in the current work, his rendering of the human hand was as good as any artist of the period. During his long career, in addition to the Paris Salon, Piot exhibited at the Goupil Gallery, the Exposition de Bordeaux, the National Academy of Design in New York, and the prestigious Exposition Universelle of 1889. In 1883 he was elected a member of the Société des Artistes Français. Dimensions: (framed) 64cm x 72cm (25¼” x 28¼”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 46cm x 56cm (18” x 22”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Circa 1990; with Haynes Fine Art of Broadway. Thence in private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘Guinevere’ by Norman Prescott-Davies R.B.A, R.C.A. (1861-1915). The painting – which depicts an English mediaeval portrait of Queen Guinevere at Amesbury Priory contemplating her love for Launcelot – is signed by the artist and dated 1891. Norman Prescott-Davies studied at the Royal College of Art, Lambeth School of Art, and at Heatherley's. He then worked in London as a portrait and figure painter, especially in miniature, a discipline that well-suited his eye for detail and painstaking precision. Prescott-Davies’ technical exactitude and occasional choice of Arthurian subjects has prompted comparisons to the Pre-Raphaelite painters of a generation earlier, but the artist is more accurately placed with the ‘Olympian School’ of late 19^th century painters of ancient Pompeian subjects such Lord Leighton and Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema. Norman Prescott-Davies was elected Associate of the Royal College of Art in 1891, and a full member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1893 and of the Royal Cambrian Academy in 1912. Today, works by Prescott-Davies are in the collection of Manchester Art Gallery and the Williamson Gallery & Museum in Liverpool. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 51cm x 64cm (20” x 26¼”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 38cm x 51cm (15” x 20”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘The Sacred Fire’ by Joseph-Marie Vien (1762-1848). The sacred fire of ancient Rome was an eternal flame located in the Temple of Vesta attended to by the young priestesses known as the Vestal Virgins. Romans believed that so long as it stayed alight the well-being and security of Rome was assured. An old dealer label (in French) verso, reads: “A young priestess in a yellow dress and blue sash, pearls, and a white veil in her blond hair, holding a wreath of flowers in her left hand, is about to place a piece of incense on a tray presented to her by her companion in the background, draped in a mantle of gauze and crowned with foliage. In front, burns the fire of the altar: in the background stands the statue of the goddess.” The young priestess isn’t in fact sprinkling incense but salted flour which along with libations of wine, milk, or olive oil was one of few offerings the Vestals made to the Sacred Fire. Joseph-Marie Vien was the son of the Joseph-Marie Vien the Elder (1716-1808), official court painter to King Louis XVI of France. Joseph-Marie Vien the Younger studied under his father (alongside Jacques-Louis David) and at the Académie des Beaux-Arts with François-André Vincent, another of the most important French neoclassical painter of pre-Revolutionary France. From the 1780’s (until 1836) Vien was a regular exhibitor at the Salon in Paris. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 88cm x 101cm (34½” x 39¾”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 63cm x 78cm (24¾” x 30¾”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private collection of Andrey Zhelamskiy,  Blaisdon Hall, Gloucestershire. Presentation: Fine 19^th century carved giltwood frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘News from the Front’ by Frederick Goodall R.A. H.R.I. (1822-1904). The painting – which depicts a diverse cross-section of Victorian figures gathered outside a post office as they receive news of the war in India – is signed by the artist and dated 1849-51. Goodall painted three versions of the present work; the larger, entitled ‘The Post Office’, was exhibited at the British Institution in 1850, whilst the smaller version is today in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 1862, an edition of The Art Journal recalled the paintings great popularity and discussed the figures portrayed; “In front of the door is a group of ‘village politicians’, foremost among whom is the barber whose business it is to gain the earliest intelligence of news that he may retail it to his customers: he holds in his hand a copy of The Times and is reading some war tidings of importance, for the word “Victory” appears on the broad sheet. The brawny figure with the bare arms is the blacksmith, owner of the wicked-looking bull terrier by his side. Nearer to the spectator is the ‘boots’ of the village inn who probably acts also as occasional ostler. The youth in a velveteen jacket is from the mansion and is come for the squire’s letters, and a boy with a board filled with fine fish completes the group. On the other side of the picture are two figures to whom that stolid, round-faced post-boy has brought anything but good tidings; a woman and her boy now in all probability the widow and the fatherless, an open letter with a black seal lies before them; it tells them the ‘victory’ has made them desolate. At least it may be presumed this is the artist’s intention, for the drum at the boy’s side may be taken to signify that he is a soldier’s son. In advance of these is another woman reading a letter to an old Chelsea pensioner and his wife. There is no sad intelligence in her epistle, her child may continue its gambol with the kitten unchecked by its mother whose hour of tribulation has not yet come”. A precocious talent, Frederick Goodall's first professional commission (aged just 16) came from the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and whilst still in his mid-20s he was already one of the most critically acclaimed and financially successful painters in Britain. Between 1838 and 1902 Frederick Goodall exhibited at all the principal London venues, most prominently at the Royal Academy on 165 occasions. Goodall was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1852, a full Royal Academician in 1863, and an Honorary member of the British Institution in 1867. Dimensions: (framed) 110cm x 138cm (43¼” x 54¼”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 89cm x 118cm (35” x 46½”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: 1860; ‘Artists, Sculptors & Architects’ exhibition in Paris. 1860s; with Vicars Brothers Ltd, London. Private collection of Sir Julian Goldsmid. 1896; Christie’s, where purchased by Nathan Mitchell, 18 Regents Park Road, London. 1901; exhibited in Sheffield. 1902; ‘French and English Painters of the 19th Century’ exhibition at the Guildhall in London. 1902 exhibited in Glasgow. 1972; sold at Bonhams, London. 1989; sold at Sotheby's, London. 1990: with Haynes Fine Art, Broadway. Thence in private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned and revarnished. Ready to hang.

‘Vigilance, Loyalty, and Devotion’ by Arthur Wardle R.B.C. R.I. (1864-1949). The painting – which depicts a young Edwardian beauty with parasol surrounded by poppies and three faithful canine companions – is signed by the artist and hangs in a fine quality gold metal leaf Watts frame. Following the deaths of Sir Edwin Landseer RA (1802-1873) and Briton Rivière RA (1840-1920), the mantle of Britain’s greatest living animal painter passed to Arthur Wardle. Like Landseer and Rivière, Wardle was a frequent visitor to London Zoo where he would make extensive sketches of lions, leopards, and tigers. It was though as painter of dogs that he became most famous. Throughout art history, dogs have featured prominently as representing love and fidelity, and as a familiar symbol of devotional relationships. In portraits of young women, small dogs frequently represent the beauty and elegance whilst large dogs are included as icons of loyalty and protection. Between 1880 and his death in 1949, Arthur Wardle was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy showing 113 paintings there, as well as hundreds of others at the Royal Society of British Artists, the Fine Art Society, the Royal Institute, the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, the Manchester Art Gallery, the Royal Birmingham Society, and with his dealer at the Arthur Tooth Gallery in the Haymarket, London. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 78cm x 103cm (30¾” x 40½”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 57cm x 82cm (22½” x 32¼”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf Watts frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.

‘Awakening’ by Herbert James Draper (1863-1920). This monumental oil painting – which depicts two wood nymphs rising to meet the morning sun – is signed by the artist and dated 1918 in which year it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. In its review of the highlights of the 1918 Royal Academy Exhibition ‘The Connoisseur’ magazine praised the painting’s “grace and refinement” and in his 2003 book ‘Herbert Draper, a Life Study’, Simon Toll (Senior Director at Sotheby’s in London) further discusses the painting; the artist’s last great full-length painting of neoclassical nudes… “An enigmatic dryad is seated against the foot of an ancient tree. A naked bacchante sprawls on a leopard skin in a bestial pose consistent with the temperament of Bacchus’ worshippers. The painting depicts the morning after the night before, the post-coital slumber of the orgiastic reveller. Are the women abandoned like Ariadne, or are their latest lovers like those of the kelpie, submerged lifeless somewhere amongst the leave mounds? The bacchante emerges from the dried leaves, from which she has spent the night after the previous day’s drunken orgies.”  Herbert Draper entered the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1885, winning a silver medal for life drawing the following year. He first exhibited at the R.A. in 1887, and the following year won a travelling scholarship enabling him to complete his studies in Paris at the Académie Julian under Jules-Joseph Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger. In 1889 Draper won the Royal Academy Gold Medal and another scholarship, and spent much of 1890 travelling in Europe, visiting Spain and Italy. On his return to England, Draper found huge success with his paintings of mythological subjects, and he would go on to rival Lord Leighton and John William Waterhouse as one of England’s greatest painters of Academic Romanticism. Draper’s painting ‘The Lament for Icarus’, won the gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 and was purchased for the Tate Gallery in London in 1898. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 131cm x 229cm (51½” x 90”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 107cm x 205cm (42” x 80¾”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: 1918; exhibited as ‘Reveil’ at the Royal Academy in London (catalogue no.304). Thence in the private UK collection. Literature: 1918; ‘The Connoisseur’ magazine, vol.LI, p.115. 2003; ‘Herbert Draper 1863-1920: A Life Study’ by Simon Toll, pp.48, 163-164, 197, colour plate 52. Presentation: Fine quality bespoke gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘Stone Walls do not a Prison Make’ by Henry Nelson O’Neil ARA (1817-1880). The painting – which depicts one of the most popular Romantic figures of the 19^th century, Mary Queen of Scots – is signed with monogram by the artist and dated 1869 in which year it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. Dressed in her familiar vêtements de deuil Mary Stuart is pictured during her final days of captivity at Fotheringhay Castle. On the table before her is a bible, a sprig of heather, and the wild rose she is said to have introduced to Scotland; rosa spinosissima is an ancient variety famous for its beauty and ability to survive in the poorest conditions. Mary Stuart was beheaded on the orders of her cousin Queen Elizabeth I on February 8^th, 1587. With his friends William Powell Frith, Richard Dadd, John Phillip, Edward Matthew Ward, and Augustus Egg, O'Neil was a founder member of The Clique, one of the most important artist groups of the mid-19th century who promoted a revival in the popularity of subject pictures in British art. Although today his vibrant and highly detailed paintings are frequently described as ‘Pre-Raphaelite’, Henry Nelson O’Neil was ironically one of the most outspoken critics of the brotherhood during the 1850s, though he later became a great friend of John Everett Millais. O’Neil’s most famous subject picture ‘Eastward Ho!’ captures British troops bidding farewell to their relatives before departing for the subcontinent to fight in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Between 1838 and 1879 Henry O’Neil exhibited 94 paintings at the Royal Academy, 34 at the British Institution and 14 with the Royal Society of British Artists. He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1879. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 66cm x 57cm (26” x 22½”). Dimensions: (canvas only) 48cm x 39cm (19” x 15¼”). Medium: Oil on board. Provenance: 1869, exhibited at the Royal Academy (cat no.306). Thence in private UK collection. Presentation: Giltwood and ebonised frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘La Couronne de Marguerite’ by Édouard-Louis-Lucien Cabane (1857-1942). The painting – which depicts a young Parisienne wearing a crown of daisies – is signed by the artist and dated 1915. It hangs in a fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Édouard Cabane studied in Paris with Adolphe William Bouguereau (1825-1905) and Tony Robert-Fleury (1838-1912) at the Académie Julian. He made his debut at the Salon in 1876 and ten years later won the first of three medals of distinction. ‘La Couronne de Marguerite’ (the Daisy Crown) is typical of Cabane's portraiture which frequently features the diaphanous young women of the new century. His style might be described as a harmonious blend of the Academicism of Bouguereau and the freer bravura technique of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), with an added dash of melting sfumato for good measure. Cabane also exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889 and regularly showed his paintings at the Société des Artistes Français, to which organisation he was elected a full member in 1901. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 52cm x 60cm (20½” x 23½”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 39cm x 47cm (15½” x 18½”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘The Arrest of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at Varennes’ by Robert Alexander Hillingford (1828-1904). The painting – which depicts the King and Queen of France’s failed attempt to escape the French Revolution – is signed by the artist and presented in a newly commissioned, fine quality gold metal leaf Louis XVI design frame. On the evening of June 20^th, 1791, Louis and Marie-Antoinette managed to slip out of Paris disguised as valet and governess to one of their own attendants, the Marquise de Tourzel. The King and Queen and the royal children escaped as far as the town of Varennes where they were recognised by the local postmaster Jean-Baptiste Drouet, depicted in the painting (left). In Hillingford’s cleverly constructed scene the King – though dressed in the drab brown frock coat of an attendant –inadvertently gives away his true identity by standing with 'hidden hand', the unmistakable expression of nobility and gesture of absolutism. The Queen slumps in a chair, head in hand, as a crowd of looting peasants gather at the door. Eighteen months after his arrest at Varennes Louis XVI was publicly executed by guillotine on the Place de la Révolution in Paris, Marie-Antoinette meeting the same fate nine months later. Robert Alexander Hillingford was a highly successful Victorian painter of historical and literary scenes who became most famous for his portrayals of the Napoleonic Wars and the plays of Shakespeare. Amongst his patrons Robert Hillingford counted many of the most famous art collectors of the 19th century including Thomas Baring of the famous banking dynasty, the King of Württemberg, Prince Michel Kotchoubey, and many of the newly monied industrialists of Manchester and Halifax. Between 1864 and 1902 Hillingford exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists in London. ‘The Hillingford Chronicles’, a detailed account of the life and work of the artist, can be found at the News & Articles section of the Academy Fine Paintings website. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 71cm x 96cm (28” x 37½”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 51cm x 76cm (20” x 30”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘The Baron’s Charger’ by John Frederick Herring Jr. (1815-1907). The painting – which depicts a 17^th century Caroline nobleman with his battle horses and attendant hounds – is signed by the artist and indistinctly dated. It is presented in a fine early-19^th century carved and gilded swept frame. John Frederick Herring Jr. was taught by his father, the eminent early 19^th century artist J.F. Herring Sr. (1795-1865) who was official Animal Painter to Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. Like Herring Sr., he became a highly successful painter of sporting and animal subjects which were particularly popular with the English aristocracy. The current work is a homage to his father’s famous subject picture of 1850, and possibly commissioned by a patron who had been unable to secure Herring Senior’s original. Between 1860 and 1875 J.F. Herring Jr. exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 87cm x 101cm (34½” x 39¾”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 63.5cm x 77cm (25” x 30¼”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality early 19^th century gilt swept frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘Melancholic Sappho’ by Arthur Hill RBA (1841-1908). The painting – which depicts the celebrated poet of Ancient Greece appealing to the Goddess Aphrodite, with the Parthenon on the Hill of the Muses above the city of Athens in the background – is signed by the artist, dated 1877, and further inscribed to the stretcher verso. It is presented in its original gold leaf Pre-Raphaelite frame. Known as ‘The Tenth Muse’ Sappho of Lesbos was one of the greatest lyric poets of Greek antiquity famous for her love poetry and in particular ‘Ode to Aphrodite’ in which Sappho herself appeals to the Greek goddess to fly from Olympus in her chariot drawn by doves to advise her in affairs of the heart. It is this moment depicted in the current work. When the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy it was hung with the following quote from Psalm 55; “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!”. Arthur Hill became a pupil at the Royal Academy Schools in 1863 and made his debut at the Summer Exhibition the following year. A contemporary of Frederick Leighton (1830-1896), Lawrence Alma Tadema (1836-1912), and Edward John Poynter (1836-1919), Hill was one of several important late Victorian artists known as ‘Olympians’ owing to their fondness for portraying scenes from classical antiquity. Between 1864 and 1893 Arthur Hill exhibited the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the British Institution, the Royal Birmingham Society, Glasgow Institute, Manchester City Art Gallery, and the Walker Gallery in Liverpool. Arthur Hill was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1881. Seven years later, in May 1888, Hill was one of ‘The Fiendish Party” of members (that also included Alfred Stevens, George Percy Jacomb Hood, and James Jebusa Shannon) who demanded that James Whistler resign his presidency of the RBA. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 129cm x 88cm (50¾” x 34¾”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 105cm x 67cm (41¼” x 26¼”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: 1877: Royal Academy Exhibition, London (cat no. 154). Thence in private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

'Fille de Fleur de Concarneau' by François-Alfred Delobbe (1835-1920). The painting – which depicts a girl selling peonies in Concarneau on the coast of Brittany in North-West France – is signed by the artists and presented in a newly commissioned gold metal leaf frame. François Alfred Delobbe entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at the age of 16, where he studied with the great history painter Thomas Couture, before entering the studio of the most important French Academic painter of the period William-Adolphe Bouguereau. In 1861 Delobbe made his debut at the Salon in Paris and would continue to exhibit there over the following decades. After visiting the town of Concarneau his choice of subjects was increasingly drawn from Breton life and in particular working women and girls at work who worked in the fields, along the coastline, and in the town. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 63cm x 72cm (24¾” x 28¼”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 46cm x 56cm (18” x 22”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘Diana Nemorensis’ by Max Nonnenbruch (1857-1922). The painting – which depicts the Goddess Diana of the Woods beside Lake Nemi – is signed by the artist and presented in its original antique gold leaf neoclassical frame. The sacred temple of Diana Nemorensis stood just outside Rome in dense woodland surrounding Lake Nemi. Famous for its great beauty the lake lies in an ancient volcanic crater known as ‘Diana’s Mirror’. The emperor Caligula was a supporter of the Cult of Diana Nemorensis and had his two famous Nemi ships (two floating palaces) built on the lake. Max Nonnenbruch studied in the academies of Düsseldorf and Munich before enrolling at the Académie Julian in Paris. Nonnenbruch’s ethereal compositions contain many elements of the European Symbolist movement but as his career and technique developed his work became more closely allied to the elegant Greco-Roman school of the great English Olympian painters Lord Leighton and Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema; his figure painting in particular being every bit the equal of their contemporary John William Godward. The artist exhibited many times in Munich and Berlin as well as at the Galerie Heinemann in Nice. In 1892 he played an important role at the International Art Exhibition at the Munich Glaspalast. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 108cm x 78cm (42½” x 30½”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 90cm x 60cm (35½” x 23½”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private French collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

‘Jeune Fille en Blanc’ by Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942). The painting – which depicts one of the artist’s favourite models Wanda Zielinska – is signed and dated 1896. It is listed and illustrated in the Catalogue Raisonné of the complete works of Jacques-Émile Blanche, a copy of which will be included in the sale. Wanda Zielinska sat for Blanche on several occasions between 1889 and 1897. Nicknamed Pouponne, she grew up to be a talented violinist.

• For a comprehensive account of the life and work of Jacques-Émile Blanche visit the News & Articles page.

Born into a wealthy French family of eminent psychiatrists, Jacques-Émile Blanche grew up surrounded by literary and artistic influences. His father was an important collector of Impressionist paintings and was friends with (and often physician to) many of the great art world figures of 19^th century Paris. Although he received some formal training from Henri Gervex (1852-1929), Jacques-Émile Blanche undoubtedly learned most from his early mentor Edouard Manet and his friends James Whistler, John Singer Sargeant, Giovanni Boldini, and James Tissot. During his long and successful career Blanche painted many street scenes of late Victorian London but became most famous as a portrait painter. Like his father, Blanche was a popular and gregarious character, and a close friend of just about every important figure in Belle Epoque Paris. He painted famous portraits of Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Aubrey Beardsley, James Joyce, Colette, Edgar Degas, Claude Debussy, Henry James, Auguste Rodin, Thomas Hardy, John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina, Jean Cocteau, Ida Rubinstein, Stéphane Mallarmé, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Valéry, Aldous Huxley, and D.H. Lawrence in addition to Royalty and just about every prominent society beauty of the Belle Epoque. Between 1881 and his death in 1945 Jacques-Émile Blanche exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Artistes, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (of which he was founder member), and the Exposition Universelle of 1900, in London at the Royal Academy and the New English Arts Club, and at the Venice Biennale where he was awarded a gold medal. He also became a renowned master to numerous students during his time at the Académie Vitti, one of the first schools to accept female students, and subsequently at the Académie de La Palette. In the 1930 he was made a Commander of the Légion d’Honneur and five years later was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the most distinguished position any French artist could be offered by the state. Today, works by Blanche can be found in the collections of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Tate Britain in London among many others. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 76.5cm x 90cm (30” x 33½”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 60cm x 73.5cm (23½” x 29”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private collection, Belfort, France. Sale; Maître Patrick Gauthier, Belfort, 1990. Richard Green, London. Richard Nathanson, London. Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London. Sale; Sotheby’s, London, 2011 (est.£50,000-£70,000). Property of a nobleman. Literature: ‘Jacques-Émile Blanche’ by Jane Roberts, 2012, Montreuil, p.70, illustrated (as ‘Pouponne Zelinska vue de dos’) Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

'Perdu dans la Poésie’ by Alfred Stevens (1823-1906) The painting - which depicts a young Parisian society beauty reading beside an open window – is signed by the artist and presented in a fine quality gold leaf frame.

• A detailed look of the life and career of Alfred Stevens is now available at the News & Articles page of the Academy Fine Paintings website.

Alfred Emile Léopold Stevens was one of the most famous and successful artists in Europe throughout the second half of the 19th century. His skill as a draftsman was complimented by a gift for characterization most notably when portraying women, and he was not simply an observer but a lover of women who possessed the empathy and perception to capture them as they wished to be seen. During his long and illustrious career Alfred Stevens exhibited at all the major European venues and was elected a member of the Royal Academy of both Belgium and Madrid, a Commander of the Légion d'Honneur, and Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold. In 1900, aged seventy-seven, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris held a retrospective exhibition of more than two hundred of his paintings; the first time such an honour had been afforded to a living artist. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 98cm x 78.5cm (38½” x 31”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 76cm x 55.5cm (30” x 22”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: 1979; London 9^th May 1979, sold £7,700 (£30,000). 2009; Boisgirard, Nice, Cote d’Azur. 2020; Dorotheum, Vienna. Private Italian collection. Presentation: Fine quality gold leaf frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

'Vegetable Seller at the Night Market' by Petrus van Schendel (1806-70). The painting – which depicts a midnight scene of two young women at a vegetable stall by candlelight – is signed by the artist and dated 1866. It is presented in a superb quality ripple moulded fruitwood frame. Petrus van Schendel (1806-1870) studied at the Antwerp Academy under the influential Belgian artist Matheus Ignatius van Bree (1773-1839). From 1827 van Schendel exhibited in Amsterdam, Antwerp, The Hague, and in Brussels where he was awarded a gold medal in 1845. Further awards followed exhibitions in Paris and in London where he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855 and 1856. Van Schendel’s greatest success came at the prestigious Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857 when he was awarded a gold medal. Petrus van Schendel’s two most important patrons were King Leopold I of Belgium and Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert. Today, paintings by Petrus van Schendel can be found in the Royal Collection of His Majesty King Charles III as well as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the National Gallery in Brussels. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. Dimensions: (framed) 87cm x 71cm (34¼” x 28”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 66cm x 50cm (26” x 19¾”) Medium: Oil on mahogany panel. Provenance: Private UK collection. Presentation: Fine quality ripple moulded fruitwood frame. Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.  

'St. James' Day' by Richard Morton Paye (1751-1820). This very large and exceptionally fine 18th century oil on canvas depicts a diverse crowd of Londoners at an oyster stand on a summer’s evening. The artist’s masterpiece, the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1788. The street festival of St. James’ Day commenced at midnight on August 5^th and was known as London’s ‘Oyster Day’.

• More about the long history and new restoration of this important Georgian painting can be seen in the accompanying film.

Richard Morton Paye was one of the most gifted and innovative painters of early English School. ‘St. James’ Day’ is a wonderful record of life in London during the reign of King George III and is sold with provenance of ownership dating back over 240 years. The Festival of St. James’ Day Greengrocers rise at dawn of sun – August the fifth – come haste away! To Billingsgate the thousands run, – ‘Tis Oyster Day! – ’tis Oyster Day! The above verse is taken from a poem popular during the reign of King George III which captures the excitement surrounding the arrival of the season’s first oysters at Billingsgate Market in London. August 5^th marked the start of the oyster season in England and the celebrations – which included much drinking of alcohol as well the eating of oysters – began every year London at the stroke of midnight. About the Artist A contemporary (and rival) of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, Richard Morton Paye was an innovative and skilful painter of scenes of everyday London life, often featuring children. Between 1773 and 1802 he exhibited 64 times at the Royal Academy, yet today, known works of his are few and far between. In ‘St. James’ Day’ Paye uses the opportunity to take out his frustration with patrons and the self-appointed connoisseurs of the London art world by lampooning both. In the background, to the left, a well-to-do gentleman is being accosted by a drunkard who humiliates him by pulling off his wig. New research into the painting has revealed the man to be the most powerful art collector of the age, John Julius Angerstein (1735-1823) of whom Richard Morton Paye was clearly not a fan. Meantime, to the lower right, a vicious dog is pictured stealing a chicken and written on its collar is the word “critick”. It is worth noticing that Paye was also capable of turning his acerbic wit upon himself. Seen on the far left, looking directly out at us, is the artist himself, distracted by public attention and clearly unaware that he is being robbed by a pickpocket. Dimensions: (framed) 127cm x 142cm (50” x 56”) Dimensions: (canvas only) 102cm x 119cm (40” x 43”) Medium: Oil on canvas. Provenance: 1788; purchased by William Clay, Esq. of Upper Gower Street. (1748-1824). 1824; purchased by Johnson at Christie’s 5^th June, lot 95. Julius Ernst Guthe, Kepwick Hall, Thirsk, North Yorkshire (1857-1917). Julius Ernst Guthe, Jr., Kepwick Hall, Thirsk, North Yorkshire (1885-1975). Digby J. E. Guthe, Silton Hall, Neither Silton, North Yorkshire (1927-1982). Thence by descent in private UK collection. Presentation: Newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf frame. All of the new frames we commission are especially made for us to order by one of the UK’s top period frame makers. Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned, conserved and re-varnished. Ready to hang. We do not sell dirty, damaged or unframed works of art. Conservation: Professionally restored by Simon Gillespie Studio, as seen on BBC Television's 'Fake or Fortune' and 'Britain's Lost Masterpieces'.