William James Müller

Signed l.l.: W Muller/1839., oil on panel 43.5 x 27 cm.; 17 x 10 5/8 inches Provenance Thomas Agnew & Sons, London; Anonymous sale Sotheby’s, London, 10 November 1982, lot 49; Noortman & Brod, New York, 1983; Anonymous sale, Christie’s, New York, 10 February 1998 lot 160; Matthew Rutenberg, New York, until 2020 Exhibited Noortman & Brod, 18th and 19th Century Paintings, April – May 1983, New York, June - July 1983, London This spirited painting executed with great bravura was done shortly after the artist’s return from Egypt in 1839. Müller arrived in Egypt by steamer in November 1838. He was one of the first established European artists to visit Egypt and was there at the same time as David Roberts, although neither knew of the other’s presence there. Müller was exhilarated by his arrival in the bustling metropolis of Cairo and was particularly intrigued by the slave market, which he described as ‘one of my most favourite haunts’ (W. J. Müller, ‘An Artist’s Tour of Egypt’, Art-Union 1, London, 1839, pp. 131-2). Müller is the best-known artist of the Bristol School. His German father settled in the city and was the first curator of the Bristol Institution, the forerunner of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. His early exposure to art led to a short apprenticeship with James Baker Pyne and a friendship with the Reverend James Bulwer (1749-1879), a pupil of John Sell Cotman, whose collection of Norwich School drawings Müller would have known. In 1833 Müller was one of the founders of the Bristol Sketching Club and his travels began the following year with visits to Holland, Germany and Venice. His 1838 trip started in Athens before he continued to Cairo. In 1840 he visited France and in 1843 he went to Lycia at the same time as Sir Charles Fellows’ expedition, during which he produced some of his finest watercolours. He died at the age of 43 after his return from Turkey. Following Müller’s death, prices of his oil paintings rose dramatically in the salerooms. Articles on his work appeared regularly and in 1875 N. Neal Solly, the biographer of David Cox, wrote a long biography. In 1896 the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery held a retrospective of 192 of Müller’s paintings, watercolour and drawings. His reputation was kept alive in Bristol where the 150th anniversary of his birth in 1962 was celebrated with an exhibition at Bristol Art Gallery, while in 1984 Tate Gallery held a show of his French and Lycian watercolours. In 1991 a major retrospective was held at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, who hold the most comprehensive collection of his work, organised by Francis Greenacre, the renowed authority on Müller and the Bristol School.

Watercolour over pencil with touches of gum arabic 16.7 x 11.1 cm.;6 5/8 x 4 3/8 inches Provenance Rev. James Bulwer (1794-1879), by descent; The Palser Gallery, St James’s, London; Unidentified auction, 24 March 1981, lot 53; Christopher and Rosemary Warren until 2020 Exhibited The Palser Gallery, 27 King Street, St James’s, no. 51 St Stephen’s church can be seen clearly from Marsh Street in the centre of Bristol. The Rev. James Bulwer (1794-1879) was a pupil of John Sell Cotman and the owner of a fine collection of British watercolours.

Oil on canvas 50 x 69 cm Provenance: Spink & Son, London, 1977; Private collection, UK Exhibited: Spink, Visions of the Orient, October 1995, cat. no. 35 (on loan) Müller returned from Egypt in 1839 and spent the summer in Bristol before moving to London in the autumn. He worked at the Clipstone Street Academy in Fitzroy Square in the evenings, where he painted from life. This artists’ society had been founded in the 1820s to enable artists to study picturesque characters from life, and there Müller worked in oils, producing sparkling sketches of which this is a lively example. This picture seems to reflect his interest in the Cairo slave market, where he spent time sketching from 1838 to 1839 and which provided the subjects for many of his exhibited works at the Royal Academy and British Institution until his death in 1845. A further study of the same sitter is with the Maas Gallery.