This is a large fine mid-19th century oil on canvas depicting a semi-naked girl beside a woodland stream with a group of shocked onlookers in the background by the eminent French Romantic painter Auguste-Barthélemy Glaize 1807–1893. ‘Femme-au-Bain’ is signed by the artist and dated 1852. It is presented in a superb quality bespoke gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned, lined, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked, and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Glaize was one of the great French Romantic painters of the mid-19th century, most famous for his striking mythological, historical, and orientalist scenes often containing female nudes. His sensuous depictions of scantily clad young women also found their way into his Biblical paintings and although he received commissions for several important buildings – including the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris – his work was considered quite scandalous by many in the Catholic Church.
Glaize exhibited at the Paris Salon between 1836 and 1894, and today his paintings are held in numerous important collections, including that of the Louvre in Paris.
Dimensions: (framed) 83cm x 67cm (32¾” x 26¼”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 66cm x 49cm (26” x 19¼”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private French collection.
Presentation: Fine neoclassical gilt 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. Newly professionally cleaned, lined, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting the meeting of a young shepherdess and a cattle herder before a breath-taking Scottish Highland landscape in ‘Glen Coe, Argyllshire’ by the important British painter Sidney Richard Percy (1822-1886). This magnificent Victorian oil painting is signed by the artist and dated 1878. It hangs in a in a newly commissioned fine quality English Baroque frame decorated in gold metal leaf.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Sidney Richard Percy was the fifth son of the celebrated English landscape painter Edward Williams (1781-1855), one of the most famous families in British art history. In my opinion Sidney Richard Percy was its most gifted painter. Just as his brothers Henry John Boddington (1811-1865) and Arthur Gilbert (1819-1895) had done, Sidney Williams changed his name in order to distinguish himself from the other members of the Williams family.
Between 1842 and 1886 Percy exhibited at all the leading Victorian art venues showing 76 paintings at the Royal Academy, 48 at the British Institution, and 73 with the Royal Society of British Artists at the Suffolk Street Gallery.
Dimensions: (framed) 97cm x 72cm (38” x 28”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 76cm x 51cm (30” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Newly commissioned fine quality English Baroque frame in gold metal leaf.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine 19th century portrait oil on canvas of a young woman in a bonnet by the eminent Victorian painter William Arthur Breakspeare (1855-1914). The painting is signed by the artist and typical of the artist’s finest work.
Regarded as a founder member of the Newlyn School and the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, William Breakspeare exhibited 34 paintings at the RBSA between 1874 and 1899. Breakspeare became famous for his period genre scenes and unmistakable portraits of beautiful young women.
William Breakspeare exhibited 21 works at the Royal Academy between 1891 and 1914, and many others with the Royal Society of British Artists and the Grosvenor Gallery in London.
Dimensions: (framed) 68cm x 52cm (26¾” x 20½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 57cm x 41cm (22½” x 16”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Louis XV style giltwood swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine mid-19th century oil on canvas depicting a mother and daughter on a summer afternoon gathering gorse (or furze as it is also known) for kindling with a donkey resting nearby by the eminent British landscape painter Sidney Richard Percy (1822-1886). ‘Furze Cutters’ is signed by the artist and dated 1851. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London that same year, and hangs in an English Baroque style frame decorated in gold metal leaf.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Sidney Richard Percy was the fifth son of the celebrated English landscape painter Edward Williams (1781-1855), one of the most famous families in British art history. In my opinion Sidney Richard Percy was its most gifted painter. Just as his brothers Henry John Boddington (1811-1865) and Arthur Gilbert (1819-1895) had done, Sidney Williams changed his name in order to distinguish himself from the other members of the Williams family.
Between 1842 and 1886 Percy exhibited at all the leading Victorian art venues showing 76 paintings at the Royal Academy, 48 at the British Institution, and 73 with the Royal Society of British Artists at the Suffolk Street Gallery.
Dimensions: (framed) 73cm x 55cm (28¾” x 21¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 61cm x 41cm (24” x 16”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Good quality English Baroque style frame in gold metal leaf.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Lined circa 1970. Ready to hang.
‘Grange-over-Sands’ by Sidney Richard Percy (1822-1886). Signed by the artist and dated 1877.
A large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting figures, cattle and a dog on a coastal path overlooking Morecombe Bay in Cumbria. He painting hangs in a superb quality, newly commissioned, bespoke gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Sidney Richard Percy was the fifth – and most gifted – son of the English landscape painter Edward Williams (1781-1855), one of the most famous families in British art history. Just as his elder brothers Henry John Boddington (1811-1865) and Arthur Gilbert (1819-1895) had done, Sidney Williams changed his name in order to distinguish himself from the other members of the Williams family.
Between 1842 and 1886 Percy exhibited at all the leading Victorian art venues showing 76 paintings at the Royal Academy, 48 at the British Institution, and 73 with the Royal Society of British Artists at the Suffolk Street Gallery.
Dimensions: (framed) 81cm x 116cm (32” x 45½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 61cm x 98cm (24” x 38½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: April 1972; purchased from the Leger Galleries, Old Bond Street, London. Thence in the same 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. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
‘Cornfield near the Coast’ by Sidney Richard Percy (1822-1886). Signed by the artist and dated 1865, this large fine 19th century oil painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1865. The painting hangs in a superb quality newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Sidney Richard Percy was the fifth – and most gifted – son of the English landscape painter Edward Williams (1781-1855), one of the most famous families in British art history. Just as his elder brothers Henry John Boddington (1811-1865) and Arthur Gilbert (1819-1895) had done, Sidney Williams changed his name in order to distinguish himself from the other members of the Williams family.
Between 1842 and 1886 Percy exhibited at all the leading Victorian art venues showing 76 paintings at the Royal Academy, 48 at the British Institution, and 73 with the Royal Society of British Artists at the Suffolk Street Gallery.
Dimensions: (framed) 81cm x 116cm (32” x 45½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 61cm x 98cm (24” x 38½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1865. Purchased from Frost & Reed, London, circa 1960. Thence 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: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
Conservation: Where necessary the paintings we sell are cleaned and restored by Fine Art Restoration (est.1974) or Simon Gillespie Studio, as seen on BBC Television\\’s \\’Britain\\’s Lost Masterpieces\\’.
‘Une Fille de Filature’ by Charles Louis Lucien Müller (1815-1892). The painting is signed by the artist and dated 1862 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.
Charles Louis Muller entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1831 where he studied under Baron Gros and Léon Cogniet. Three years later he began exhibiting at the Salon where he would contribute paintings each year for the rest of his working life. Muller was awarded numerous medals of honour at the Salon including first-class medals in 1848 and 1855. He was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur in 1849, and an Officer in 1850. Perhaps the crowning achievement of Muller’s career came when he was commissioned to decorate ceilings in the Louvre Museum with four compositions representing periods in the history of French art.
Dimensions: (framed) 68cm x 88cm (27” x 34½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 49cm x 69cm (19¼” 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. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting a young girl alone in a dilapidated interior cradling an infant by the eminent Victorian Royal Academician Frank Holl R.A. (1845-1888), one of the most important British artists in history. ‘Little Mother’ is signed by the artist and dated 1880. It is sold in a fine quality newly commissioned bespoke gilt metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Frank Holl was 15 when he became a student at the Royal Academy Schools. Whilst still a pupil he began producing the kind of provocative social realism paintings which were to become his trademark. Between 1864 and his premature death in 1888, Holl exhibited 87 paintings at the Royal Academy in London and was elected a Royal Academician in 1883.
Vincent van Gogh – today arguably the most famous painter in the world – considered Frank Holl to be a Master, and whilst living in London fastidiously cut out and collected Holl’s engravings published in The Graphic. Everyone even remotely interested in art should take some time to read the fascinating letters of Van Gogh (sent to his brother Theo and friend Anthon van Rappard). One name mentioned reverentially again and again is that of Frank Holl.
Dimensions: (framed) 74cm x 64m (29” x 25”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 56cm x 45cm (22” x 18”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine gold metal leaf swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
A very large fine 19th century painting depicting a group of noblemen appearing before king Edward VI, the young son of Henry VIII, and his court by the eminent Victorian painter Charles Cattermole RI (1834-1900). ‘Petitioning the Young King’ is signed by the artist and dated 1875. This important and very detailed gouache and watercolour would have been painted for exhibition and is the largest known work by Cattermole.
In addition to Edward VI, the painting depicts the Lord Protector of the Realm; Edward Seymour (symbolically leaning on the throne), together with Henry VIII’s widow Catherine Parr kneeling beside the young king, with the future queen Elizabeth I and archbishop Thomas Cranmer also in attendance.
As with all of the original antique paintings we sell it is offered in the finest condition it can be for its age having just subject to complete professional examination and conservation. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Charles Cattermole was one of the most gifted and successful watercolour painters of historical subjects in 19th century Britain. From 1858 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists (to which he was elected Member in 1876), the New Watercolour Society (elected Member in 1870), the Royal Institute (elected Member in 1870), the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (elected Member in 1883), the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Today, paintings by Charles Cattermole are held in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and Sydney Art Gallery in Australia.
Dimensions: (framed) 146cm x 96cm (57½” x 37¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 129cm x 76cm (50¾” x 30”)
Medium: Gouache and watercolour.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf frame.
Condition: Excellent. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century oil on canvas of the famous ruins of ‘Bolton Abbey’ in Yorkshire by the celebrated Victorian painter, Henry Bright (1814-1873).
By the time Queen Victoria purchased Bright’s ‘Entrance to an Old Prussian Town’ in 1844, he was well on the way to becoming one of Britain’s most popular landscape painters. Mentored by John Sell Cotman and John Berney Crome, and championed by John Ruskin, Henry Bright went on to become a leading member of the influential Norwich School of British painters.
Henry Bright exhibited 12 works at the Royal Academy, 26 at the British Institution and 11 at the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Society of British Artists.
Dimensions (inc. frame): 106cm x 74cm (41¾” x 29”)
Dimensions (canvas only): 90cm x 60cm (35½” x 23½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Provenance: Fine Private UK Collection.
Presentation: Mid-20th century British baroque gilt frame.
This is a very large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting a spectacular view of ‘Windsor Castle from the Thames’ by the important Victorian landscape painter Alfred de Bréanski Snr (1852-1928). The painting is signed by the artist and sold in a fine quality gold metal leaf swept frame. Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. Founded by William the Conqueror in the 11th century, it has since been the home of 39 English monarchs. Today the Queen spends most of her private weekends at the Castle, and in May it was the venue for the marriage of Prince Harry and Megan Markel.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
A very successful British landscape painter, Alfred de Bréanski Senior became famous for his dramatic scenes of the Scottish Highlands and views of the River Thames. Between 1869 and 1915 Alfred de Bréanski exhibited 46 oils at the Royal Academy and a great many more at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Royal Society of British Artists.
Dimensions: (framed) 109cm x 78cm (43” x 31”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 91cm x 61cm (36” x 24”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine gold metal leaf Baroque style swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Ready to hang.
‘A Welsh Hillside Path’ by Benjamin Williams Leader (1831-1923). This very large fine oil on canvas is signed and dated by the artist and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874. The painting is presented in a newly commissioned, bespoke gold metal leaf frame.
As with all the paintings we sell it is offered in the finest condition it can be for its age having just been professionally cleaned, conserved and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Benjamin Williams Leader entered the Royal Academy Schools from 1856 and exhibited his first painting at the Summer Exhibition the following year. Leader would go on to become one of the most celebrated landscape artists of the Victorian age and at the height of his fame his paintings commanded the highest prices of any British artist. He exhibited at the Royal Academy every year from 1857 to 1922, an unbroken 65 continuous years, which still stands as a record today.
Benjamin Williams Leader was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1883, and an Academician in 1898. He also exhibited abroad, winning a gold medal at the Paris Salon and awarded the Legion of Honour in 1889. Examples of Leader’s work can be seen in Birmingham and Manchester Art Galleries, and the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Gallery in London.
Dimensions: (framed) 124cm x 170cm (48¾” x 67”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 106½cm x 152¾cm (42” x 60”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Royal Academy Exhibition, 1874. 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, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
‘La Belle Fille Marocaine’ by Jean-François Portaels (1818-1895). The painting is signed by the artist and hangs in a superb quality, newly commissioned gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
In 1841 Jean-François Portaels enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and became a pupil of the great French history painter Paul Delaroche (1797-1856). The following year Portaels won the Belgian Prix de Rome and would go on to become one of the most successful Belgian artists of the second half of the 19th century.
In addition to being a renowned painter of subject pictures and orientalist subjects, Portaels was in great demand as a portrait artist with wealthy French clients and members of the Belgian aristocracy. In 1851 he received the Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold and later admitted as a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts. In 1865 had was appointed artistic advisor to King Leopold II and became director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent and the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Today, his paintings are held in numerous important private collections and European museums.
Dimensions: (framed) 61cm x 71cm (24” x 28”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 43cm x 54cm (17” x 21¼”)
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. Newly professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a very large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting a magnificent black Highland longhorn bull by the distinguished Scottish painter Joseph Denovan Adam RSA RSW (1841-1896). ‘Laird of the Highlands’ is signed by the artist and dated 1885.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Between 1859 and 1892 Joseph Denovan exhibited 25 oils at the Royal Academy in London, as well as many more at the British Institution, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Paris Salon.
The son of the Scottish landscape painter Joseph Adam, Joseph Denovan Adam would go on to eclipse the achievements of his father becoming late Victorian Britain’s most celebrated painter of Highland cattle. Where others painters of the Highlands such as Horatio McCulloch were content to dot their landscapes with a few cattle Adam gave them pride of place.
Adam was a stickler for painting from nature, and had a large studio – part wooden hut, part glass conservatory – built on his house to serve as an all-weather observation base. He called it his “cattle atelier”, and here he established a school of animal painting where he kept many live animals for his students to draw.
Dimensions: (framed) 133cm x 89cm (52¼” x 35”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 107cm x 67cm (42” x 26¼”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine 20th century Louis XV giltwood swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine large 19th century oil on canvas depicting a double portrait of two young Belle Epoque beauties at a masked ball by the eminent Paris Salon painter Jean-François Portaels (1818-1895). ‘Masquerade’ is signed by the artist and hangs in a superb quality newly commissioned gold metal leaf frame. The painting is also sold with its original 19th century French frame. In 1979, the painting was part of the exhibition ‘From Navez to Devos’ featuring important Belgian art from 1787 to 1954.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
In 1841 Jean-François Portaels enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and became a pupil of the great French history painter Paul Delaroche (1797-1856). The following year Portaels won first prize in the Belgian Prix de Rome and would go on to become one of the most successful Belgian artists of the second half of the 19th century.
In addition to being a renowned painter of subject pictures and orientalist subjects, Portaels was in great demand as a portrait artist with wealthy French clients and members of the Belgian aristocracy. In 1851 he received the Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold and later admitted as a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts. In 1865 had was appointed artistic advisor to King Leopold II and became director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent and the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Today, his paintings are held in numerous important private collections and European museums.
Dimensions: (framed) 86cm x 69cm (33¾” x 27”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 68cm x 51cm (26¾ x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: 1979; shown in Brussels at the ‘From Navez to Devos’ exhibition. Private French collection.
Presentation: Fine neoclassical gilt 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine late 18th century portrait oil painting of an aristocratic Georgian boy in red velvet coat with a very cheeky smile on his face attributed to the celebrated American portrait painter Gilbert Charles Stuart (1755-1828). The painting was sold by William Rodman, fine art dealers of Belfast circa 1850, thence in the private collection of the art dealer Lucy Failey during the 20th century, with Sotheby’s in 1993, auction labels to the stretcher verso.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having been newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Gilbert Stuart is widely considered one of America’s foremost portraitists. Stuart’s most famous work is his portrait of George Washington that has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for more than a century. Gilbert Stuart produced portraits of more than 1,000 people, including the first six US Presidents.
In 1775 Stuart left the US for Great Britain and lived and worked in London under the tutelage of Benjamin West (1738-1820), and within two years was exhibiting his own work at the Royal Academy. Between 1787 and 1793 he lived and worked Dublin, Ireland before returning to America.
Today, his work can be found in the collections of important galleries and museums throughout the United States and the United Kingdom; most notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Dimensions: (framed) 47cm x 41cm (18½” x 16”)
Dimensions: (painting only) 31cm x 27cm (12¼” x 10¾”)
Medium: Oil on mahogany panel.
Provenance: Circa 1850; with William Rodman, art dealers of Belfast, Northern Ireland. 1950’s; in the private collection Lucy Fairley, former Director of the Lucy Milton Gallery in London. 1993; with Sotheby’s.
Presentation: Original giltwood swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
A large 19th century landscape by John Knox (1778-1845). One of Scotland’s most important landscape painters, Knox’s early work was composed in the classical tradition of Claude Lorrain. He later developed a mature style that uniquely captures Scotland’s most famous locations.
‘The Road Home’ depicts one such iconic vista; the majestic beauty and sweeping grandeur Loch Katrine in the heart of the Trossachs, the birthplace of Rob Roy, and the setting for Sir Walter Scott’s poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’.
John Knox was in the news in 2015 when his long-lost masterpiece ‘Glasgow Fair’ was finally tracked down after more than 100 years to a private collection in the United States.
The work being sold here was last offered for sale at Sotheby’s in 2008 with an estimate of $55,000-£75,000. In subject, scale and execution this very fine museum quality work ranks alongside ‘Glasgow Fair’ as one of the artists’ most important paintings.
Dimensions: (framed) 87cm x 67cm (34¼” x 26¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 74cm x 55cm (29” x 21½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Very Fine Private Scottish Collection.
Presentation: 1900s pierced and swept Louis XV frame.
Condition: Excellent. Professionally cleaned. Lined circa 1980. Ready to hang.
This is a fine large floral still life oil painting depicting a springtime arrangement of ‘Tulips & Daffodils’ in a green glazed vase by the celebrated British painter Cecil Kennedy (1905-1997). The painting is signed by the artist, and hangs in a carved wooden Chippendale style giltwood frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Cecil Kennedy was one of the foremost flower painters of the 20th century, blending the technical accuracy of a botanist with a modern use of colour and atmospheric lighting. Kennedy had many famous admirers and patrons including the Duke of Windsor, the Astor family and Queen Mary who said, ‘When I see Cecil Kennedy paintings, I can smell the flowers and hear the hum of the bees’. Queen Mary went on to encourage Cecil Kennedy to paint with the ongoing use of a ladybird – as seen in the painting being sold here – and from that moment forward it became one of his signature trademarks.
Cecil Kennedy exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, the Paris Salon, the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was awarded a silver medal in 1956 and a gold medal in 1970 at the Paris Salon.
Dimensions: (framed) 77cm x 67cm (30¼” x 26¼”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 63cm x 51cm (24¾” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine quality carved wooden Chippendale style giltwood frame.
Condition: Excellent. Professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine oil 19th century oil on canvas depicting a young woman of Ancient Rome in a sheer subucula tunic selling ‘Oranges’ by the Victorian neoclassical painter Arthur Hill RBA (1820-1920). The painting is signed and dated by the artist, and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1877. It hangs in a newly commissioned bespoke fine quality gilt metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Arthur Hill was a renowned painter of ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Roman scenes typically depicting poor yet always alluring young women. Like John William Godward, Ernest Normand, and Thomas Ralph Spence, Hill was greatly influenced by the great Olympian masters of British neo-classical painting Lord Leighton and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but unlike them he chose to portray young working women rather than the idle rich.
Arthur Hill exhibited 26 paintings at the Royal Academy (‘Oranges’ being one of these), and 28 at the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Royal Society of British Artists of which organisation he was a member.
Dimensions: (framed) 90cm x 60cm (35½” x 23½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 110cm x 80cm (43¼” x 31½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private US collection.
Presentation: Fine neoclassical gilt 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a very large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting the royal court of King Charles II in the gardens of an English stately home in Kent by the distinguished Royal Academy painter James Digman Wingfield (1800-1872). ‘Summer Hill, time of Charles II (They went every day to court, or the court came to them)’ is signed by the artist and dated 1855, in which year it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. It hangs in a superb newly commissioned handmade gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Summer Hill House is a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion near Tonbridge in the English county of Kent. Following the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, King Charles II gave Summer Hill to Viscountess Muskerry, a lady of extravagant tastes who subsequently – and notoriously – played host to the King and his entire court.
The house and its history of royal debauchery is mentioned numerous times in Count de Grammont’s scandalous ‘Memoirs of the English Court’ and was immortalised in a poem of 1833 entitled ‘The Country Seat’ which names four of the King’s most famous mistresses; Nell Gwynne, Moll Davis, Frances Stewart, and the Countess of Castlemaine…
“Oh, Summer Hill if thou wert mine,
I’d order in a pipe of wine,
And ask a dozen friends to dine!
Once tenants of this fair domain,
Soft Stewart, haughtiest Castlemaine,
Pert Nelly Gwynne, gay Molly Davis,
And many another Rara Avis.
E’en now, midst yonder leafy glade,
Methinks I see thy Royal shade,
In amplitude of wig arrayed.”
Dimensions: (framed) 131cm x 106cm (51½” x 41½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 114cm x 89cm (45” x 35”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private collection.
Presentation: New handmade gold metal leaf swept 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
A large mid-19th century landscape oil on canvas of cattle being herded across a river at sunset by the world famous British painter John Linnell (1792-1882). Entitled ‘The Ford’, this very important Victorian landscape painting is signed by the artist and dated 1858. Such was John Linnell’s success and fame in the first three quarters of the 19th century that a great many copies of his work and outright fakes purporting to be by Linnell were painted.
Crucially the painting being sold here can be traced back to the definitive catalogue of Linnell’s known works initially compiled by the artist’s biographer A.T. Story in 1892. Once you have seen and studied a genuine Linnell the fakes become easy to spot. Naturally you will always find one or two of these on ebay, but even those unfamiliar with his work need only to google images of Linnell’s vivid, dramatic landscapes to recognise the real thing.
If you were to ask most people today who were the two most famous landscape painters of Victorian Britain they would probably say Turner and Constable. Turner is certainly one, but the other is John Linnell. Prior to 1900, Constable’s work always played second fiddle to the highly charged romanticism of Linnell.
John Linnell exhibited at the Royal Academy from the age of 15 and despite initially becoming famous at a portraitist, it was as a brilliant painter of poetical landscapes that prompted both his great acclaim and the resentment of John Constable. Linnell’s confident and forthright nature – especially his readiness to ensure his wealthy patrons paid promptly for the paintings they purchased – never endeared him to the elite grandees of the Royal Academy, but it was malicious and false gossip spread by John Constable that probably help prevent Linnell’s election as a Royal Academician.
So successful and famous was Linnell that by the 1860s his exclusion was considered a public scandal, and a panicked Royal Academy repeatedly invited Linnell to put his name down for an associateship. He refused, and instead published a pamphlet attacking the Academy’s exclusivity; a unique and brilliant man, as well as painter.
Nevertheless, Linnell was greatly esteemed during his lifetime by most of his peers, and as a landscape artist he was considered second only to JMW Turner. Upon his death in 1882, The Times obituary said ‘A glory seems to have faded from the domain of British Art. England mourns John Linnell, the most powerful of landscape painters since Turner died’.
Between 1807 and 1881 John Linnell exhibited 177 paintings at the Royal Academy, and 92 at the British Institution. During his long career John Linnell was a patron and financial supporter of William Blake, Samuel Palmer and the young Pre Raphaelites.
Recommended reading: ‘The Life of John Linnell’ by A.T. Story’ and ‘Blake, Palmer & Linnell’ by David Linnell.
Dimensions: (framed) 119cm x 91cm (46¾” x 35¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 96cm x 68cm (37¾” x 26¾”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Very fine private UK collection.
Presentation: Magnificent Louis XV style swept giltwood frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned. Lined circa 1980. Ready to hang.
This is a fine early 20th century oil painting depicting a young Belle Epoque beauty in the warm glow of a fireside making her finally preparations for an evening engagement by the famous French academic painter Delphin Enjolras (1857-1945). ‘Au Coin du Feu’ is signed by the artist, and hangs in a superb quality, new commissioned gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Delphin Enjolras studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts, and began exhibiting at the Salon in Paris in 1890. He became famous for his portraits of elegant young socialites lit by the warm glow of a single light source, usually a bedside lamp or fireside. Like Alfred Stevens and Auguste Toulmouche before him, Enjolras was a master of boudoir scenes of young ladies but it was his use of gentle chiaroscuro that makes his intimate pictures unique.
Enjolras’ enduring popularity means that copies of his oil paintings – bearing spurious signatures – are not uncommon, and usually the work of Enjolras imitator Max Carlier 1872-1932. Genuine oil paintings and fine pastels by Delphin Enjolras display a vastly superior technique and use of colour.
In 1901, the artist was elected as a member of the Société des Artistes Français in 1901, and today works by Enjolras can be found in the Musée du Puy and Musée d’Avignon.
Dimensions: (framed) 57cm x 49cm (22½” x 19¼”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 42cm x 34cm (16½” x 13¼”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private French collection.
Presentation: Fine neoclassical gilt 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 and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine Belle Epoque oil painting portrait of a young redheaded beauty strikingly lit from behind by the eminent American painter Harry Herman Roseland (1867-1950). ‘American Beauty’ is signed by the artist, and hangs in a superb quality, newly commissioned gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Harry Roseland was one of the most prominent American subject picture painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is most famous today for his poignant and compassionate scenes depicting the working lives of poor African-Americans but his early portraits of young society beauties are much rarer and no less impressive.
Today, Roseland’s most famous admirer is perhaps Oprah Winfrey whose favorite painting from her own personal collection is Roseland’s 1904 work ‘To the Highest Bidder’.
Dimensions: (framed) 56cm x 46cm (22” x 18”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 41cm x 31cm (16¼” x 12¼”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private French collection.
Presentation: Fine neoclassical gilt 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine mid-19th century oil on canvas depicting a family bringing in ‘The Harvest’ at sunset on a summer evening by the eminent Victorian landscape painter Henry Dawson (1811-1887). The painting is signed by the artist and dated 1866. Between 1838 and 1875 Henry Dawson exhibited 28 paintings at the Royal Academy, 33 at British Institution, and 6 with the Royal Society of British Artists.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Apart from a few lessons with James Baker Pyne, Henry Dawson was an entirely self-taught artist and his breath-taking English landscapes show a pure gift for detail and originality. His canvas’ became brighter and more vivid as his confident mature style developed, and his Turneresque landscapes became much in demand amongst fellow artists and private collectors. Eventually word of his talent spread and his sale prices rose with that of his wider fame.
Today his work is held in the collections of the Walker Gallery in Liverpool and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Literature: ‘The Life of Henry Dawson, Landscape Painter’ (1891) by Alfred Dawson.
Dimensions: (framed) 100cm x 71cm (39¼” x 28”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 84cm x 56cm (33” x 22”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: 19th century Louis XV design carved giltwood frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine early 18th century oil on canvas depicting an English Man O’ War firing ‘The Morning Gun’ at anchor alongside two other ships of the line. This 400 year old painting is a rare work by the important early English marine painter, John Cook (act. 1720-1750). The painting dates to around 1720 and is signed J. Cook Fecit; ‘fecit’ being the archaic Latin suffix used by artists up until 18th century, and literally meaning ‘he made it’.
John Cook’s work is often confused with that of the foremost marine painter of the early 18th century, Peter Monamy. Cook is best known for his maritime scenes of English warships in the Mediterranean, frequently off Alexandria.
Dimensions: (framed) 115cm x 84cm (45¼” x 33¼”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 101cm x 71cm (39¾” x 28”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Important Fine UK collection.
Presentation: 20th century neoclassical giltwood frame.
This is a large fine 19th century Victorian landscape oil on canvas depicting an atmospheric nocturnal scene of dark figures walking at ‘Liverpool’ docks – lit by the glow of gas lights – by the very popular British artist and former pupil of John Atkinson Grimshaw, Wilfred Jenkins (1859-1944). The painting is signed by the artist and is the finest example of Jenkins’ work I have ever come across. It is sold in a newly commissioned fine quality giltwood frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Living and working in the city of Leeds in the late 19th century it was perhaps inevitable that Wilfred Jenkins would become heavily influenced by that famous painter of Victorian nocturnes John Atkinson Grimshaw, who also lived in the city. Jenkins became one of Grimshaw’s most gifted pupils and his moonlit nocturnal scenes of Victorian England greatly resemble those of his master.
Dimensions: (framed) 98cm x 72cm (38½” x 28½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 77cm x 51cm (30¼” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine giltwood swept frame with acanthus corners. 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. Newly cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century landscape oil on canvas depicting a summer evening on Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands by the celebrated English landscape artist Alfred de Bréanski Jnr. (1877-1945). ‘Twilight, Loch Ness’ is signed by the artist and is sold in a newly commissioned superb quality gold metal leaf swept frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Alfred de Bréanski Jnr. (or Fontville de Bréanski as he is also known) is most famous for his landscapes featuring the lochs and mountains of the Scottish Highlands. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, and with the Royal Society of British Artists at the Suffolk Street Gallery.
Dimensions: (framed) 95cm x 69m (37½” x 27¼”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 76cm x 51cm (30” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine gold metal leaf swept 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. Newly professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century painting depicting the imminent assassination of French Huguenot leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny by agents of Catherine de Medici and Philip II of Spain by the eminent Victorian history painter William Holmes Sullivan RCA (1836-1908). ‘The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre’ is signed by the artist and dated 1877. It hangs in its original gilded Pre Raphaelite frame.
As with all of the original antique paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just undergone a full technical assessment and fitted with anti-reflection, conservation grade UV protection Museum Glass®. Museum Glass® is the finest glazing option available for watercolour paintings. Along with its nearly invisible finish it effectively blocks up to 99% of harmful indoor and outdoor UV light rays, less than 1% light reflection, UV protection, high optical clarity and over 97% light transmission providing the highest brightness and contrast levels available.
On August 24th 1572 Gaspard de Coligny was murdered by Catholic assassins and his severed head sent to Pope Gregory XIII by Catherine de Medici. As seen in the painting, Admiral de Coligny’s friend Pastor Merlin escaped through a secret passage. What became known as the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre claimed the lives of up to 30,000 people.
William Holmes Sullivan was a celebrated history painter who specialised in dramatic battle scenes and figural pictures taken from the works of William Shakespeare. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of Artists and at the Royal Cambrian Academy, of which he was a member.
• We are grateful to Professor Nicola Watson for her expertise and kind assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
Dimensions: (framed) 123cm x 93cm (48¼” x 36¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 101cm x 72cm (39¾” x 28¼”)
Medium: Watercolour.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine quality original mid-19th century gilded Pre Raphaelite frame.
Condition: Excellent. Ready to hang.
This is a very large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting a young Highland bull by the distinguished Scottish painter Joseph Denovan Adam RSA RSW (1841-1896). ‘The Highlander’ is signed by the artist and dated 1877. It is sold in a superb quality, newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Between 1859 and 1892 Joseph Denovan exhibited 25 oils at the Royal Academy in London, as well as many more at the British Institution, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Paris Salon.
The son of the Scottish landscape painter Joseph Adam, Joseph Denovan Adam would go on to eclipse the achievements of his father becoming late Victorian Britain’s most celebrated painter of Highland cattle. Where others painters of the Highlands such as Horatio McCulloch were content to dot their landscapes with a few cattle Adam gave them pride of place.
Adam was a stickler for painting from nature, and had a large studio – part wooden hut, part glass conservatory – built on his house to serve as an all-weather observation base. He called it his “cattle atelier”, and here he established a school of animal painting where he kept many live animals for his students to draw.
Dimensions: (framed) 169cm x 126cm (66½” x 49½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 152cm x 106cm (59¾” x 41¾”)
Medium: Oil on artists’ board.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine gold metal leaf swept 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine large mid-19th century landscape oil on canvas depicting an extensive river landscape with castle ruins on a nearby hilltop by the eminent Royal Academician, Frederick Richard Lee RA (1798-1879). This superb work is signed by the artist, and dated 1841.
Lee trained at the Royal Academy schools, and first exhibited there in 1822. He went on to have a further 170 paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy, placing him amongst the first rank of 19th century British landscape painters.
Lee’s work was often compared to that of John Constable (who had just the 104 paintings shown by the RA) and he was elected a full Royal Academician in 1838. In addition he exhibited 131 works at the British Institution, and 24 with the Society of British Artists.
Lee often painted works with his friends Thomas Sidney Cooper and Sir Edwin Landseer, both of whom provided the cattle for Lee’s landscape backgrounds. One such collaboration set the current world record for a Lee, selling for $278,000 at Christie’s London in 2003.
Works by Frederick Richard Lee, such as the one being sold here, are in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Dimensions: (framed) 99cm x 83cm (39” x 32¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 84cm x 67cm (33” x 26½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Fine Private West London Collection.
Presentation: Mid-20th century gilt Baroque frame.
Condition: Very good. Ready to hang.
This is a fine 19th century oil on canvas of a young Belgian girl at the threshold of an old cottage surrounded by baskets of fruit and vegetables by the eminent Victorian artist, Oliver Rhys (exh.1876-1893). Rhys was particularly famous for his detailed figural paintings of classical maidens and beautiful young peasant girls. The very beautiful work being sold here is signed by the artist and inscribed ‘Anvers, 1883’, indicating that it was painted in Antwerp.
Between 1876 and 1893, Rhys exhibited eight works at the Royal Academy in addition to numerous others at the prestigious Grosvenor Gallery, and the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Royal Society of British Artists.
Measurements (inc. frame): 75cm x 61cm (29½” x 24”)
Measurements (canvas only): 61cm x 46cm (24” x 18”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Fine Private UK Collection.
Presentation: 1900’s Louis XV swept giltwood frame.
Condition: Excellent. Professionally cleaned. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century oil painting portrait of a young society beauty captured in semi-undress by the eminent French Academic painter Charles Joshua Chaplin (1825-1891). ‘Belle Femme en Déshabillé’ is signed by the artist and sold in a superb quality newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf neoclassical frame. The painting is in my opinion one of the artist’s most striking three-quarter length portraits, and certainly captures one of his most attractive sitters.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Chaplin’s celebrated portraits of young women are reminiscent of the 18th century romanticism of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and François Boucher (1703–1770) but his subjects are nevertheless recognisable as more modern Belle Epoque women. The critical and commercial success of Chaplin’s beautifully lit portraits of sensual young women captured en déshabillé established him as one of the foremost French academic painters of the period.
By the late 1850’s Chaplin was being inundated with commissions from the French aristocracy requesting portraits of their wives and daughters. Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, was also a big fan and appointed him an artist of the court. Her and her husband’s enthusiastic support would soon come in especially useful when, in 1859, the Chaplin’s portrait ‘Aurora’ was banned by the judges of the Salon for being “too erotically suggestive”. The disqualification order was subsequently overturned when Napoleon III himself sprung to Chaplin’s defence.
During his lifetime Chaplin was awarded numerous medals at the Paris Salon and in 1865 he was declared a Chevalier and later Officer of la Légion d’Honneur (1881). Today, works by Charles Chaplin are held in the collections of the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage in St Petersburg, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Dimensions: (framed) 90cm x 65cm (35½” x 25½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 72cm x 47cm (28¼” x 18½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine gold metal leaf swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine mid-19th century English landscape oil on canvas of a boy fishing at a lock ‘On the Stour’ by the world famous British artist, Edward Robert Smythe (1810 – 1899). The painting is signed by the artist and sold with superb provenance, with dealer’s labels verso of previous sales circa 1920/30s from McConnal-Mason and Ackermann & Johnson.
Together with his brother Thomas, Edward Robert Smythe was one of the foremost painters of the Suffolk and Norwich Schools, along with contemporaries and friends such as John Sell Cotman and Frederick Ladbrooke. A highly gifted painter, Smythe specialised in landscapes and coastal scenes of East Anglia. This particular work features one of the locks on the River Stour, such as Dedham and Flatford, made famous by John Constable.
Smythe attracted commissions from eminent patrons such as the Earl of Cardigan, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists between 1850 and 1861.
Measurements (inc. frame): cm x cm (” x ”)
Measurements (canvas only): 89cm x 69cm (35” x 27”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private collection of Cornish estate.
Presentation: 1900s pierced and swept Baroque frame.
Condition: Excellent. Professionally cleaned. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting a typically beautiful scene over ‘The Grand Canal, Venice’ towards the Ducal Palace, St. Mark’s Square and the Santa Maria della Salute by the eminent Victorian landscape artist Alfred Pollentine (1836-1890). The painting is signed by the artist and dated 1871. This is without question the finest work by Pollentine I have ever seen.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Alfred Pollentine has become famous for his striking landscapes of 19th century Venice. Between 1861 and 1880 Pollentine exhibited many works at both the British Institute and the Royal Society of British Artists in London though his work was in such high demand he never replied upon exhibition sales to make a living.
Dimensions: (framed) 94cm x 64cm (37” x 25”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 81cm x 51cm (32” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine new Louis XV style swept frame. All of the new frames we commission are especially made for us to order by one of the UK’s finest period frame makers.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang. We do not sell dirty, damaged or unframed works of art.
Conservation: The oil paintings well sell are where necessary cleaned and restored by John Malcolm of Fine Art Restorations (est.1974), a third-generation picture restorer with 40 years’ experience.
This is a fine large mid-19th century oil on canvas depicting ‘Rosalind and Celia’ in the Forest of Arden from Act 3, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ by the famous English Victorian artist Henry Nelson O’Neil ARA (1817-1880). The painting is signed by the artist and dated 1856. It was in this year that the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London where O’Neil exhibited a grand total 94 paintings between 1838 and 1879.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having just been professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished.
Henry O’Neil was a founder member of The Clique, one of the most important artist groups of the 19th century, alongside Richard Dadd, William Powell Frith, John Phillip, Edward Matthew Ward, Augustus Egg, and Alfred Elmore.
In the 1850’s O’Neil was a famously virulent critics of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood though ironically his own luminous technique and fastidious attention to detail compares to anything produced by Millais, Rosetti, and Holman Hunt.
Henry Nelson O’Neil also exhibited 34 painting at the British Institution and 14 with the Royal Society of British Artists.
Dimensions: (framed) 109cm x 88cm (43” x 34¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 92cm x 71cm (36¼” x 28”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Bespoke Baroque style swept frame. All of the new frames we commission are especially made for us to order by one of the UK’s finest period frame makers.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine mid-19th century oil on canvas of an extensive landscape view of a busy town on the banks of the Moselle river in Germany by the famous Victorian painter George Vicat Cole (1833-1893). This important antique oil painting is signed by the artist and dated 1856.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in superb condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Vicat Cole was the son of the eminent landscape painter George Cole (1810–1883). In 1851, aged 18, he accompanied his father on a sketching trip to the Moselle region of Germany, and in 1853 had his first painting – of the river Moselle – accepted by the Royal Academy. The majority of Vicat Cole’s paintings are English landscapes and only a handful of his early views of the Moselle are known to be in existence. The painting being offered for sale is one of those important rare works of the Moselle.
In total George Vicat Cole exhibited 76 paintings at the Royal Academy, 10 at the British Institution and 48 with the Royal Society of British Artists.
All of the artist’s painting produced between 1854 and 1870 are signed ‘Vicat Cole’. On being elected an ARA by the Royal Academy in 1870 he henceforth signed his works with a monogram composed of the initials VC. George Vicat Cole was made a full Royal Academician in 1880.
Dimensions: (framed) 105cm x 75cm (41¼” x 29½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 92cm x 61cm (36¼” x 24”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Sold in 1976 by Frost & Reed of New Bond Street, London, thence in Private UK collection.
Presentation: 20th century Louis XV giltwood swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine mid-19th century oil on canvas depicting a thoroughbred horse named ‘Cardinal’ by the eminent Victorian artist John Paul (1804–1887). The painting hangs in a fine water gilded English frame and is one of a pair we are currently selling. An inscription verso suggests that Cardinal belonged to Cosmo Little, probably Major Cosmo Little of the Queen’s 6th lancers, a well-known Victorian horseman and polo player.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
John Paul was known for architectural views of London and for his fine equine portraits, some of which were painted with John Frederick Herring Snr (1795-1865). Paintings by John Paul are in the collections of The Guildhall Art Gallery in London.
Dimensions: (framed) 81cm x 68cm (32” x 26¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 64cm x 51cm (25¼” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine water gilded English frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine mid-19th century oil on canvas depicting a thoroughbred horse named ‘The Collier’ by the eminent Victorian artist John Paul (1804–1887). The painting is signed by the artist and dated 1859. It hangs in a newly commissioned fine gold metal leaf English frame, and is one of a pair we are currently selling.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
John Paul was known for architectural views of London and for his fine equine portraits, some of which were painted with John Frederick Herring Snr (1795-1865). Paintings by John Paul are in the collections of The Guildhall Art Gallery in London.
Dimensions: (framed) 75cm x 63cm (29½” x 24¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 64cm x 51cm (25¼” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine gold metal leaf English frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a very large fine 19th century oil painting depicting a nude female warrior with shield and spear draped in a diaphanous fabric by the eminent German painter Leopold Schmutzler (1864-1940). ‘The Valkyre’ is signed by the artist and presented in a superb quality bespoke gold metal leaf salon frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having just been cleaned and re-varnished.
One of Europe’s foremost portraitist of the late 29th and early 20th century, Leopold Schmutzler became famous for his elegant Salon paintings of beautiful, scantily-dressed young women. From 1880 he trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and thence in Munich where he received commissions from the Bavarian royal family.
Dimensions: (framed) 123cm x 95cm (48½” x 37½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 106cm x 78cm (41¾” x 30¾”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private German collection.
Presentation: Newly commissioned fine quality gold metal leaf salon frame. All of the new frames we commission are made to order for us by one of the UK’s finest period frame makers.
Condition: Excellent. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century English landscape oil on canvas depicting an extensive view across the county of Surrey on a fine summer’s afternoon by the eminent Victorian painter Arthur Gilbert (1819-1895). The painting is signed and dated 1886, and is a superb example of Gilbert’s finest work.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in superb condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Arthur Gilbert was the fourth son of the important English painter Edward Williams and a member of the famous Williams family of artists. Like his five brothers, Gilbert enjoyed a long and successful career as one of Britain’s foremost landscape painters. He was equally adept at rendering the English landscape as was its farm workers and animals.
Between 1836 and 1894 Arthur Gilbert exhibited 49 oil paintings at the Royal Academy, 51 at the British Institution and a further 111 with the Royal Society of British Artists at the Suffolk Street Gallery. Gilbert’s pre-eminence was recognised in 1857 when he was personally invited by W.M. Rossetti to send paintings to the first Exhibition of Living British Artists, held in New York.
Dimensions: (framed) 93cm x 67cm (36½” x 26½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 76cm x 51cm (30” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: 20th century Louis XV giltwood swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting a grateful young mother making ‘A Thank Offering’ before a church altar by the prominent Victorian subject painter Francis William Warwick Topham (1834-1924). The painting is signed and dated by the artist, and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1884. The ‘thank offering’ of the title refers to the mother’s grateful thanks for the safe delivery or recovery from illness of her baby who plays nearby. The painting is presented in a newly commissioned fine quality gold metal leaf swept frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age having been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
After studying under his father, the eminent 19th watercolourist Francis W. Topham (1808-1877, Francis William Warwick Topham joined the Royal Academy Schools and the workshop of Charles Gleyre (1808-1874) in Paris. Topham spent much of his life in Italy and became famous for his genre scenes of life in Rome and Capri.
Between 1860 and 1904 Topham exhibited 75 paintings at the Royal Academy – one of those being the painting sold here. In addition, he showed at the British Institution, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Grosvenor Gallery, the Walker Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil amongst many others.
Dimensions: (framed) 70cm x 55cm (27½” x 21½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 51cm x 36cm (20” x 14”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine quality gold metal leaf swept frame.
Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Some slight craquelure commensurate with age. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century oil painting depicting the Emperor Napoleon entering a Spanish garrison during ‘An Incident in the Peninsular War’ circa 1809 by the celebrated Royal Academy painter Robert Alexander Hillingford (1828-1904). The painting is signed by the artist and sold in a superb quality newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf swept frame. It is testament to the enduring popularity of the painting that it is widely available today to buy as a print. The painting being sold here is, of course, the original oil painting by Hillingford.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Robert Alexander Hillingford was a highly successful Victorian painter of historical and literary scenes. He is most famous for his highly detailed paintings of the Napoleonic Wars as well as Shakespearean subjects. Between 1864 and 1902 Hillingford exhibited 29 works at the Royal Academy, and numerous others the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists in London.
Dimensions: (framed) 94cm x 68cm (37” x 27”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 76cm x 51cm (30” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Superb quality gilt 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a fine 19th century oil painting of a young woman in late mediaeval costume ascending the steps of large stone building carrying a ewer by the eminent Victorian painter Sir Hubert von Herkomer RA (1849-1914). This superb example of Herkomer’s figural work is signed by the artist and dated 1876.
Herkomer was born in Bavaria but settled in England in 1857 where he underwent his artistic training at the South Kensington Schools and would earn a reputation as one of the most versatile and gifted European artists of the day.
In 1883 Herkomer founded one of Europe’s most important art schools near his palatial home in North London. After becoming a full Royal Academician in 1890, the artist was ennobled by King Otto of Bavaria allowing him to add the honorific ‘von’ to his name. Sir Hubert von Herkomer exhibited 210 paintings at the Royal Academy in London between 1869 and 1914. He was knighted by King Edward VII 1908. Four works by Herkomer hangs in the Tate gallery in London.
Dimensions: (framed) 90cm x 70cm (35½” x 27½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 59cm x 39cm (23¼” x 15½”)
Medium: Oil on panel.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Superb 19th century carved bolection frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century landscape oil on canvas depicting a spectacular evening sunset ‘On the River Tay’ in the Highlands of Scotland by the celebrated English landscape artist, Alfred de Bréanski Jnr. (1877-1945). The painting is signed by the artist and hangs in a late 19th century Baroque gilt frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished.
Like his famous artist father Alfred de Bréanski Sr, Alfred de Bréanski Jnr (or Alfred Fontville de Bréanski as he is also known) frequently painted the mountainous landscapes of the Scottish Highlands, though his style was slightly less formal. De Breanski exhibited Highland landscapes at the Royal Academy in London, and with the Royal Society of British Artists at the Suffolk Street Gallery.
Dimensions: (framed) 91cm x 65cm (35½” x 25½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 76cm x 51cm (30” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine 20th century Louis XIV giltwood swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned, lined and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting a family of gypsies camped on a ridge overlooking a magnificent river valley with a settlement visible in the distance by the famous early Victorian landscape painter Henry Jutsum (1816-1869). The painting is signed by the artist, and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1842.
Henry Jutsum studied under the eminent 19th century landscape painter James Stark (1794-1859) and his work inevitably reflects the influence of the Norwich School and the Dutch Golden Age Masters, Meindert Hobbema and Jacob Van Ruisdael.
Jutsum first exhibited at the Royal Academy aged just 20 in 1836, and went on to show another 67 paintings at there. He also exhibited 75 works with the British Institution and 19 at the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Royal Society of British Artists.
Paintings by Jutsum are held in the Royal Collection, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Dimensions: (framed) 107cm x 76cm (42” x 30”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 79cm x 49cm (31” x 19”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: With William Rodman fine art dealers of Belfast circa 1880, thence in private UK collection.
Presentation: 19th century British Baroque swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned. Lined circa 1970. Ready to hang.
This is a fine mid-19th century oil on canvas depicting a scandal unfolding in the life of a well-to-do Victorian couple. This superbly detailed work is by the world famous 19th century Royal Academy artist, William Powell Frith RA (1819-1909). The painting is signed by the artist.
Frith exhibited no less than 136 paintings at the Royal Academy, including some that became the most viewed and talked about in British art history. A hugely popular painter of scenes depicting the everyday lives of the wealthiest and poorest of Victorian Britain, Frith’s wonderfully detailed narrative compositions were, in truth, anything but ‘everyday’. His work was witty and satirical, and full of social conscience, making him the greatest British ‘painter of people’ since Hogarth. In fact together with Turner, Linnell, Leighton and the pre Raphaelites (with whom he shared a mutual dislike) Frith was the most successful and highly paid of all British 19th century artists, and alongside Dickens the great chronicler of Victorian Britain.
Frith’s greatest successes were his large, multi-figural panoramas portraying the full range of the Victorian class system as they met and mingled in public places. In ‘Ramsgate Sands, Life at the Seaside’, ‘Derby Day’, ‘The Railway Station’ he painted three of the most famous oil paintings of the 19th century. No Victorian artist was such a great story teller, so great in fact that his narrative paintings could be enjoyed and understood by the many and not just the few, a talent that did not endear him to the more pretentious Victorian aesthetes.
Dimensions: (framed) 56cm x 46cm (22” x 18”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 46cm x 36cm (18” x 14”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: From the very fine private collection of late The Hon. Mr. & Mrs. Anthony Samuel.
Presentation: Louis XV style pierced and swept frame.
Condition: Excellent. Professionally cleaned, and restored. Ready to hang.
This is a fine mid-19th century landscape oil on canvas of a herd of cattle being lead through an extensive English landscape with ancient ruins to the background by the celebrated British artist, Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding (1787-1955).
This beautiful 169 year old oil painting is signed by the artist, and dated 1846. It is signed again to the stretcher, verso.
Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding was one of the most celebrated painters of the first half of the 19th century. He exhibited 17 times at the Royal Academy and won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1824 alongside Richard Parkes Bonington and John Constable. Copley Fielding was a painter of great elegance and skill and has always been highly popular with international collectors.
Dimensions: (framed) 79cm x 59cm (31” x 23”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 56cm x 36cm (22” x 14¼”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Important Fine Private UK Collection.
Presentation: Original mid-19th century gilt Baroque frame.
Condition: Excellent. Professionally cleaned. Relined circa 1900. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine 19th century river landscape depicting anglers playing a large salmon above a weir in the Highlands of Scotland by the famous Victorian artist John Evan Hodgson RA (1831-1895). The painting is signed by the artist and dated 1874.
Though English by birth, Hodgson was brought up in Russia where he was inspired by the old masters in the Hermitage collection in St Petersburg. Returning to England in 1853 he enrolled at the Royal Academy schools, and began establishing himself as an accomplished and successful painter of historical subjects. Between 1856 and 1983, Hodgson exhibited 90 works at the Royal Academy, including many iconic scenes from British history and latterly fine Orientalist paintings as well as a handful of rural British scenes. It is one such work that we are offering for sale here.
In 1882 Hodgson was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, and co-authored a celebrated history of that institution’s first sixty years. John Evan Hodgson became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Painters, and was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1879.
Dimensions: (framed) 120cm x 86cm (47¼” x 34”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 90cm x 57cm (35½” x 22¼”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Fine private UK sporting collection.
Presentation: 19th century gilt Empire frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a large fine floral still life oil painting of ‘Chrysanthemums’ in a blue and white Chinese bowl by the famous British artist Cecil Kennedy (1905-1997). The painting is signed by the artist and dated 1929 and is as striking a work by this eminent painter as I have ever seen.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age.
Cecil Kennedy was one of the foremost flower painters of the 20th century, blending the technical accuracy of a botanist with a modern use of colour and atmospheric lighting. Kennedy exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, the Paris Salon, the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy.
He achieved not only critical acclaim but was awarded a silver medal in 1956 and a gold medal in 1970 at the Paris Salon. Kennedy’s many private patrons included Queen Mary, the Duke of Windsor and the Astor family.
Dimensions: (framed) 75cm x 65cm (29½” x 25½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 62cm x 51cm (24½” x 20”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine new Louis XV style swept frame. All of the new frames we commission are especially made for us to order by one of the UK’s finest period frame makers.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a very large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting a magnificent Highland stag by the distinguished Scottish painter Joseph Denovan Adam RSA RSW (1841-1896). ‘The Young Pretender’ is signed by the artist and dated 1877. It is sold in a superb quality, newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf frame. This is one of a pair – the other being of a Highland bull – that we are currently offering for sale.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Between 1859 and 1892 Joseph Denovan exhibited 25 oils at the Royal Academy in London, as well as many more at the British Institution, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Paris Salon.
The son of the Scottish landscape painter Joseph Adam, Joseph Denovan Adam would go on to eclipse the achievements of his father becoming one of late Victorian Britain’s most celebrated painters of Highland cattle. Adam was a stickler for painting from nature and had a large glass studio built onto his (large) house to serve as an all-weather observation base. He called it his “cattle atelier”, and here he established a school of animal painting where his students could paint cattle and deer etc. in their natural environment.
Dimensions: (framed) 169cm x 126cm (66½” x 49½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 152cm x 106cm (59¾” x 41¾”)
Medium: Oil on artists’ board.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Fine gold metal leaf swept 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
This is a very large fine 19th century oil painting depicting the famous German actress Lili Marberg as a dryad draped in diaphanous fabrics by the eminent Bohemian painter Leopold Schmutzler (1864-1940). ‘The Wood Nymph’ is signed by the artist and presented in a fine quality giltwood salon frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
One of Europe’s foremost portraitist of the late 19th and early 20th century, Leopold Schmutzler became famous for his elegant salon paintings of beautiful, scantily-dressed young women. From 1880 he trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and thence in Munich where he received commissions from the Bavarian royal family.
Dimensions: (framed) 118cm x 92cm (46½” x 36¼”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 102cm x 76cm (40” x 30”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private collection.
Presentation: Superb quality gilt 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
- We would like to thank Andrew Counter, Professor of Modern French Literature at New College, Oxford University for his invaluable help in identifying the subject and history of the painting.
- We would like to thank Colonel Nicholas Lipscombe FRHistS, Dr David J. Appleby FRHistS, Lecturer in Early Modern British History, Nottingham Trent University, Simon Marsh, Battlefield Research and Threats Coordinator at the Battlefields Trust, and Professor Martyn Bennett, B.A. (Hons), PhD. F.R.Hist.S. for their assistance in the identification of the subject of this painting.
- For much more about the life and work of the artist see 'Henry Pether and the 19th Century Nocturne' on our News & Articles page.
A large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting the famous events of AD64 and ‘The Great Fire of Rome’ with the triumphant Emperor Nero and his attendants – including Seneca and the Praetorian Guard – looking-on as St Peter and others are crucified, the city in flames beyond, by the eminent history painter Eduard Buchler (1861-1958). The painting is signed by the artist and is presented in a superb quality, newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Roman historians Pliny the Elder, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio all wrote that Nero was responsible for the Great Fire. The Emperor blamed the city’s Christians, large numbers of whom were crucified including Saint Peter. The events of July AD64 are the subject of the film ‘Quō Vādis’.
Dimensions: (framed) 120cm x 88cm (47¼” x 34½”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 101cm x 70cm (39¾” x 27½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private European collection.
Presentation: Superb quality gilt 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
‘The Changer of Hearts’ by Philip Hermogenes Calderon R.A. (1833-1898).
A fine 19th century three quarter length portrait of a Vestal Virgin of the Temple of Venus by the important Royal Academician Philip Hermogenes Calderon. The painting is signed by the artist and dated 1887, and hangs in its original gold leaf exhibition frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
“The changer of hearts\” was an epithet of the Roman goddess Venus, alluding to her ability to change hearts from lust to chastity.
Having studied in London and Paris, Philip Calderon began exhibiting historical and literary pictures and portraiture at the Royal Academy in 1853. A friend and contemporary of William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882) and John Everett Millais (1829-1896) his style was initially Pre Raphaelite yet in subject was initially closer to the artists of The Clique such as William Powell Frith (1819-1909) and Henry Nelson O’Neil (1817-880) and later to the classical themes of the Olympians Lord Leighton (1830-1896) and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912).
Calderon was elected an ARA in 1864 and a full Academician three years later, aged just 34. In the same year he became the first British artist to be awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition.
Calderon was the leader of the St John\’s Wood Clique which included (several of the most important painters of historical subject pictures and academic portraiture of the 1860s and 70s) John Evan Hodgson RA, George Dunlop Leslie RA, Henry Stacy Marks RA, Val Prinsep RA, George Adolphus Storey RA, and Frederick Walker ARA. Perhaps above all else, Calderon was a superb painter of female beauty. In 1887 the artist received one of the Royal Academy’s highest honours when he was appointed Keeper of the RA.
Dimensions: (framed) 70cm x 76cm (27½” x 30”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 47cm x 54cm (18½” x 21¼”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Original Victorian exhibition gold leaf frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
A large 19th century oil on canvas depicting a girl Italian girl sitting by a fountain peeling an apple by the eminent French academic painter Jacques-Eugène Feyen (1815-1908). ‘La Fille à la Fontaine’ is signed by the artist and presented in a good quality giltwood neoclassical frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
In 1837 Jacques-Eugène Feyen began studying under Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts. Between 1841 and 1882 he exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon and was awarded medals in 1866 and 1880. Among Feyen’s admirers was Vincent van Gogh who described him as “one of the few painters who pictures intimate modern life as it really is and does not turn it into fashion plates.”
When the ‘Mona Lisa’ was stolen from the Louvre in 1913 it was Feyen’s copy of La Giaconda that temporarily replaced it on the museum wall until Leonardo’s original was recovered. Jacques-Eugène Feyen was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur in 1881.
Dimensions: (framed) 93cm x 69cm (36½” x 27¼”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 79cm x 55cm (31” x 21½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private European collection.
Presentation: Good early 20th century giltwood frame.
Condition: Very good. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
A large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting the famous Falcon Craig (or crag) at Derwentwater in the English Lake District by the eminent Victorian landscape painter Alfred de Bréanski Snr. (1852-1928). The painting is signed by the artist and sold in a newly commissioned bespoke gold metal leaf swept frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
One of the most popular and successful landscape painters of the late 19th century, Alfred de Bréanski Snr became famous for his dramatic scenes of the Scottish Highlands and the English Lake District. Between 1869 and 1915, de Bréanski exhibited 46 oils at the Royal Academy and many more at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Royal Society of British Artists.
Dimensions: (framed) 108cm x 79cm (42½” x 31”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 92cm x 61cm (36¼” x 24”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Superb quality gilt 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. Lined circa 1980. Ready to hang.
A fine 19th century portrait oil on canvas depicting a distinguished Scottish Highland clansman in a Tam-o-Shanter and the Shepherd’s Plaid by the celebrated Royal Academy painter Robert Alexander Hillingford (1828-1904). The painting is signed by the artist and sold in its original Victorian carved giltwood frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
Robert Alexander Hillingford was a highly successful Victorian painter of historical and literary scenes. He is most famous for his highly detailed paintings of the Napoleonic Wars as well as Shakespearian subjects. Between 1864 and 1902 Hillingford exhibited 29 works at the Royal Academy, and numerous others the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists in London.
Dimensions: (framed) 64cm x 54cm (25¼” x 21¼”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 41cm x 31cm (16¼” x 12¼”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Presentation: Original Victorian giltwood frame.
Condition: Excellent. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
A very large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting ‘Katherine and Petruchio’ in a scene from Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ by the eminent Royal Academician Charles Robert Leslie RA (1774-1859). This superb, exhibition-sized Victorian painting is signed, and hangs in a fine quality newly commissioned gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
“There is no man now living who seems to me to come close at all near Mr Leslie, his work being in places equal to Hogarth for decision, and here and there a little lighter and more graceful”.
John Ruskin
Charles Robert Leslie was one of the most famous and successful British artists of the 19th century. The close friend and biographer of John Constable, C.R. Leslie exhibited 76 paintings at Royal Academy between 1813 and 1858, and was elected at full Royal Academician in 1826.
For many years the painting was erroneously thought to depict Queen Elizabeth I receiving news of her assent to the throne of England, but now with the kind assistance of Professor Rosalind King and Dr Patrick Gray we have correctly identified it’s actual subject; Act II, scene I of Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ (a favourite of C.R. Leslie), and more precisely the 1754 reworking of the play by the famous actor/manager David Garrick. Throughout Georgian and Victorian Britain it was Garrick’s version that was most often performed, and the one that the artist would most likely have seen.
“The painting represents Act II of David Garrick’s ‘Catharine and Petruchio’ and offers a genuine insight into 18/19th century interpretations of Shakespeare’s play.”
Professor Rosalind King, Oxford University
We would like to thank Professor Rosalind King and Dr Patrick Gray for their invaluable expertise in the identification of the subject in this painting. Professor King is Professor Emeritus at the University of Southampton, the Visiting Plumer Fellow at St Anne’s, University of Oxford, and has served on the academic committee of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and on the Board of Directors of the English Shakespeare Company.
Dr Gray studied at Oxford, Yale, and the Sorbonne before joining Durham University as Associate Professor of English Studies.
Dimensions: (framed) 165cm x 135cm (65” x 53”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 142cm x 112cm (56” x 44”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private collection.
Presentation: Superb quality 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. Newly professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
A very large fine 19th century oil on canvas depicting the 1554 imprisonment of ‘Princess Elizabeth in the Tower’ by the eminent Royal Academy painter Robert Alexander Hillingford (1828-1904). The painting is signed by the artist and hangs in a fine quality, newly commissioned, bespoke gold metal leaf frame.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in the very finest condition it can be for its age, having just been professionally cleaned and re-varnished. Clients should also note that fully insured, tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
On 18th March 1554 Princess Elizabeth -daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn – was incarcerated in the Tower of London by her sister, and rival for the English throne, Mary Tudor. The Princess’ worst fears were soon realised when a warrant for her execution was delivered to the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir John Brydges (shown in the painting standing, in armour, to the right). It was signed by every member of Mary’s Privy Council but upon examination Sir John saw that the signature of the Queen herself was absent and refused to act upon the death warrant. Although a staunch Catholic and servant of the Queen, Sir John Brydges was also a man of principle and duty and his intervention saved the life of the future Queen Elizabeth I.
Dimensions: (framed) 145cm x 95cm (57” x 37”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 127cm x 76cm (50” x 30”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Sold at auction in 17th June 1927. Thence in private UK collection.
Presentation: Superb quality gilt 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. Newly professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Ready to hang.
‘Spring’ by Cecil Kennedy (1905-1997).
A fine floral style life oil on canvas depicting a silver vase of spring blooms by perhaps the most eminent British flower painter of the 20th century. ‘Spring’ is signed by the artist and is one of only two pictures Cecil Kennedy is known to have painted to feature a self-portrait, here seen as a reflection in the vase.
As with all of the original antique oil paintings we sell it is offered in excellent condition, having just been professionally cleaned, restored and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.
During his long and successful career Cecil Kennedy had many patrons including the Duke of Windsor, the Astor family and Queen Mary who said, “When I see Cecil Kennedy paintings, I can smell the flowers and hear the hum of the bees”. Queen Mary went on to encourage Kennedy to paint with the ongoing use of a ladybird – as seen in the painting being sold here – and from that moment forward it became one of his signature trademarks. Cecil Kennedy exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, the Paris Salon, the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was awarded a silver medal in 1956 and a gold medal in 1970 at the Paris Salon.
Dimensions: (framed) 53cm x 63cm (21” x 24¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 41cm x 51cm (16” x 20”)
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. Newly professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.