Portraits (SOLD)

Watercolour over pencil14.5 x 12.7 cm; 53⁄4 x 5 inches Provenance: Paul F. Walter, until 2017This is an unusual example of a shop interior by Mary Ellen Best, whose remarkable work came to public attention in the 1980s when Sotheby’s handled a large group of her drawings and Caroline Davidson published her monograph on the artist. Best’s main interest lay in portraying domestic interiors and domestic workers. Born in York she drew the interiors of her own home and after marrying Johann Sarg, a school master, she moved to Darmstadt in Germany and continued to paint. From the summer of 1841 the Sargs lived in Frankfurt, in a house on the Bockenheimer Landstrasse. The birth of Mary Ellen’s children greatly reduced her artistic activity.Examples of Bests’s work, which she exhibited in her own lifetime in York, London, Liverpool and Leeds can be found in numerous international private collections and York City Art Gallery.Paul Walter (1825–2017) was the son of Fred and Anna Walter, co-founders of the New Jersey industrial instruments firm Thermo Electric. A respected connoisseur, he supported the Metropolitan and the Museum of Modern Art in New York over many years.

Pen and brown ink and grey wash on laid paper partially watermarked with the Strasburg Lily, the backing paper numbered 8, inscribed on reverse of backing paper by L.G.Duke: D938 D/L.P. Boitard/LGD and numbered 4 in ink in another hand19 x 12.7 cm.; 7 ½ × 5 inchesProvenanceColnaghi (part of an album of 65 drawings by Boitard);Leonard G. Duke (1890-1971);Squire Gallery, purchased from the above March 1948;Arnold Fellows, no. 72;Bequeathed by him to Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall;Sold by a charitable trust, 2023The artist was an engraver, designer and illustrator from Paris who lived most of his life in London. He was the son of designer François Boitard (1667-1719).A distinctive line and a sense of humor characterises his work which often features mildly satirical drawings of ordinary people.This drawing comes from an album of 65 works by the artist once owned by Leonard G. Duke, the eminent collector, who bought it from Colnaghi and split it up.Arnold Fellows was a pupil at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, between 1911 and 1917. He became a master of the school for a brief period, before moving to spend the remainder of his life as a teacher at Chigwell School in Essex. Fellows devoted much of his life to collecting art, notably works on paper, and eventually donated his entire collection to his old school. He was the author of The wayfarer's companion : England's history in her buildings and countryside, published by Oxford University Press, 1937.

Pen and brown ink and watercolour on laid paper, numbered 29 on old mount, inscribed with initials and artist’s name by L.G.Duke verso17.8 x 11.9 cm; 7 x 4 3/4 inchesProvenanceL.G. Duke, no. DG38HThe artist was an engraver, designer and illustrator from Paris who lived most of his life in London. He was the son of designer François Boitard (1667-1719). His distinctive line and sense of humour characterises his work which often features mildly satirical drawings of ordinary people.This drawing comes from an album of works by the artist once owned by Leonard G. Duke, the eminent collector.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil, inscribed verso: Talleyrand15 x 13.5 cm.; 5 7/8 x 5 1/4 inchesFrame size 31.5 x 26.5 cm; 12 ¼ x 10 3/8 inchesProvenanceCyril and Shirley Fry collectionThis sketch of the great statesman would appear to have been drawn between 1830 - 1834, during Talleyrand's time as French Ambassador to the Court of St James's.

Signed with monogram l.l., red chalk on wove paper41.8 x 35 cm; 16⅜ x 13¾ inchesPrivate collection, U.K., until 2020Alice Mary Chambers was a talented and well-connected artist associated with Whistler and the Pre-Raphaelites, whose career and family ties have so far been overlooked. A notable figure in the late nineteenth century British art world, Chambers exhibited her work in many major galleries including the Royal Academy, was a close friend of the collector Charles Augustus Howell and gave Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s plaster death mask to the National Portrait Gallery.Chambers was born in Harlow, Essex in 1854 or 1855. Her father Charles Chambers (1817–1874), vicar of St Mary’s, Harlow, was a significant figure in the ritualist or AngloCatholic movement, her mother Mary Upton (c.1815–1873) the daughter of a Sedbergh cotton merchant. Orphaned by their death within a year of each other in 1873–4 she was able to complete her studies in art. The 1881 census records Chambers as an artist in drawing and painting, living at 17 Red Lion Square in the house which had been previously lived in by William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones and where Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. had their first headquarters.Chambers was a direct contemporary of Evelyn De Morgan, Kate Bunce and Marianne Stokes and like them, the Pre-Raphaelite influence on her work was profound. She was a friend of the collector Charles Augustus Howell and through him met other artists such as Whistler (see McClean, op cit. p. 77). Howell was Ruskin’s secretary from 1865–70, and a close friend of Algernon Swinburne,the Burne-Joneses and Whistler. Howell famously oversaw the exhumation of Lizzie Siddal’s coffin to recover Rossetti’s manuscript poems in 1869 and was rumoured to have overseen the forgery of various paintings with the help of his lover, the artist Rosa Corder. When the collector Samuel Wreford Paddon sued Howell for fraud, Chambers and Corder provided promissory notes to help settle the claim. On Howell’s death in 1890 he named Chambers as an executor and trustee of his will and a guardian of hisdaughter Rosalind and she made the arrangements for his funeral and the sale of his estate.Chambers exhibited nine works at the Royal Academy between 1883 and 1893. Her work included such titles as Cydippe, Psyche, A Priestess of Ceres, Nancy, An Egyptian Fellah Woman, Relentless Memory and During the Prelude. She exhibited Daphne in 1892 at the New Gallery; the catalogue described it as a ‘little upright picture of a maiden penetrating with closed eyes throughdense laurel thicket’ (New Gallery 7). She showed During the Prelude and Home through the wood: Brittany, at the Autumn 1894 exhibition of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (Royal Society 35, 55). She exhibited work at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and the Manchester City Art Gallery. She also provided the frontispiece illustration for Mary Hullah’s The Lion Battalion (1885), a collection of stories for children.She specialized in drawings of female figures and mythological and orientalist subjects, and favoured red chalk and her monogram is reminiscent of that of Rossetti. She often used a leafy backdrop, as in the present work (not unlike the famous Morris wallpaper Willow Boughs) which can also be seen in her lithograph of the actress of the silent screen Mary Anderson and a similar drawing of a woman with her hair up and with plants in the background which was sold at Christies, London (10 March 1995, lot 134).Chambers appears to have moved again in London and led quite a peripatetic life spending time in Spain and France and was living in Sussex by 1911. In 1913 she donated Rossetti’s plaster death mask to the National Portrait Gallery.I am most grateful to Thomas McLean for his helpful comments on this drawing; see ‘Family Portraits: The Life and Art of Alice Mary Chambers’, Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature, Number 133, Summer 2018, pp. 69–83 https://doi.org/10.1353/vct.2018.0006

Richard Cosway (1742-1821)A lady playing a keyboard wearing sixteenth century dress, 1785-1790Pen and brown ink on watermarked laid paper, on the original wash-line mount14 x 15.2 cm.; 5 ½ x 6 inchesFramed size 36.5 x 36.5 cm.; 14 3/8 x 14 3/8 inchesProvenanceTimothy Clowes until 2020LiteratureG. Barnett, Richard and Maria Cosway, London 1995, fig. 38This lively drawing dates from 1785-1790 when Cosway was experimenting with 16th and 17th century costumes and role-playing. The sitter is one of the artist’s models.

Signed and dated l.r.: Joshua Cristall.1816, numbered l.l.: 18, watercolour over traces of pencil with gum arabic, stopping out and scratching out24.2 x 16.6 cm; 9 9/16 x 6 1/2 inchesProvenanceDavis & Long Company New York, 1980;Private collection, New York until 2019ExhibitedDavid & Long Company, ‘English Watercolours’, November 1-29 1980, no. 11, illus.Cristall’s charming sketches of rustic labourers at work provide an interesting record of rural labour in the early nineteenth century when the land was changing fast as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Much of his work depicted country people; their natural dignity and simplicity were qualities he found appealing. Encouraged by the popularity of his country figure studies he exhibited many such works.He was a founder member of the Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1804 and his work is included in the collections of many major U.K. museums.

Evelyn De Morgan (1855 – 1919)A study for Boreas and the Fallen Leaves, c. 1910 - 1914Coloured chalks on buff paper36.8 x 23.5 cm.; 14 3/8 x 9 ½ inchesProvenancePrivate collection, U.K. and by family descent until 2024Boreas was the Greek god of the north wind. In this study for Boreas and the Fallen Leaves in the collection of the De Morgan Foundation (P_EDM_0044) he is shown with his lips pursed, blowing the wind. The oil depicts him by a gnarled oak tree, blowing the leaves which turn to maidens with long golden hair as they fall to the ground.The most important of the four wind gods, Boreas is usually depicted as a winged man of mature age, his hair floating in the wind. He had two faces, so he could see where he was going and from where he was coming.https://www.demorgan.org.uk/collection/boreas-and-the-fallen-leaves/The model for Boreas was the professional artist’s model, Alessandro di Marco from Piedmont. Evelyn De Morgan made studies of him on several occasions, initially when she was at the Slade and later in her own studio. This drawing probably dates from 1880s. Another study of Alessandro, for her 1899 painting The Valley of Shadows is on the same buff colour paper, and also probably dates to the 1880s: https://www.demorgan.org.uk/collection/study-of-a-head-male/Di Marco was used by Evelyn De Morgan in another work depicting Boreas, Boreas and Oreithyia (De Morgan Foundation P_EDM_0040, 1896). He also features in Aurora Triumphans (1876), Life and Thought Have Gone Away(1893), The Poor Man Who Saved the City (1901), The Marriage of St. Francis and Holy Poverty (1905), The Gilded Cage, A Soul in Hell (with curly hair) and '1914'.Di Marco modelled for Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896) in Rome. Alessandro was one of the artists’ models working in London around 1870. Sir William Blake Richmond (1842-1921) described him as “a fellow so graceful and of such a colour, a kind of bronze gold” (S.T. Buckle, British Art Journal, Autumn 2012, Vol. 13, Issue 2, p.67:https://www.eb-j.org/pdfViewer/articles/MTA1OA==2012). William Hamo Thornycroft noted in his diary that Alessandro sat for long periods of time without a break. He was the model for Merlin in Edward Burne-Jones’s earlier work ‘The Beguiling of Merlin’ (1872-77). He was also photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron. George Richmond described him as ‘the living embodiment of a classical sculpture’.The first owner of this drawing was a keen collector of De Morgan’s work, and also owned ‘The Dryad’ (1884-5) now in the De Morgan Foundation.Evelyn De Morgan, who attended the Slade School of Art, was influenced by George F. Watts and Edward Burne-Jones and by the work of her uncle John Roddam Spencer Stanhope. She often visited Stanhope in Florence, where she developed a love of the work of Botticelli and quattrocento art. She first exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. In 1887 she married the ceramicist William De Morgan, with whom she often wintered in Florence.De Morgan’s work is held in many national collections including the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, National Trust properties Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton and Knightshayes Court, Devon, the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, the National Portrait Gallery, London and Southwark Art Collection, London.With thanks to Scott Thomas Buckle for his comments on this work.

Pencil17.8 x 17.7 cm; 7 x 7 inchesProvenance: M. D. E. Clayton-Stamm, by descent until 2018.Evelyn De Morgan, who attended the Slade School of Art, was influenced by George F. Watts and Edward Burne-Jones and by the work of her uncle John Roddam Spencer Stanhope. She often visited Stanhope in Florence, where she developed a love of the work of Botticelli and Quattrocento art. She first exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. In 1887 she married the ceramicist William De Morgan, with whom she often wintered in Florence.It has been suggested that this may be a preliminary study for a figure in her painting The Red Cross, 1916, in the collection of the De Morgan Foundation.Her work is held in many national collections including the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; the National Trust properties Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton, and Knightshayes Court, Devon; the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth; the National Portrait Gallery, London; and the Southwark Art Collection, London.Maxwell David Eugene Clayton-Stamm was an authority on the work of William De Morgan (on whom he published extensively), Pre-Raphaelite ceramics and the Blake-Varley sketchbook of 1819. He was a collector and bibliophile.

Watercolour with touches of bodycolour6.5 x 8 cmLady Emily Dundas, née Reynolds-Moreton, was the fourth daughter of Thomas, 1st Earl of Ducie and sister of Augusta Raymond-Barker’s stepmother Lady Catherine Reynolds-Moreton, who married John Raymond-Barker in 1841 as his second wife. In 1847 she married Admiral Sir James Whitley Deans Dundas, G CB (1785–1862) as his second wife. He became the First Naval Lord in the first Russell ministry in July 1847 and they lived at Admiralty House. Thackeray records that during the 1850 season Lady Emily Dundas gave a party at which anyone who was anyone would wish to be seen (Jerry White, London in the Nineteenth Century – ‘A Human Awful Wonder of God’, 2007).Provenance: Augusta Raymond-Barker, Fairford Park, Gloucestershire; thence by family descent until 2016

Pencil and washes, in its original early 19th century frame with acanthus leaves at the corners33 x 22.1 cm; 13 x 8 ¾ inchesProvenance: Miss Elizabeth Broadwood, Canterbury, by descent; Colt Clavier Collection, Bethersden, Kent, until 2018.Literature: David Wainwright, 'Broadwood by Appointment: A History', 1985, ill. facing p. 185.This portrait of Thomas Broadwood shows him as a young man of leisure. He was the second surviving son of John Broadwood, and the third generation of the piano manufacturers John Broadwood & Sons, who made upright and grand pianos, where he worked as business manager of the company. He met Beethoven as a young man in 1818 and sent him a newly improved triple stringed piano (which subsequently belonged to Liszt and is now in the National Museum in Budapest). Thomas Broadwood purchased the Holmbush estate in Lower Beeding, Sussex, in 1824–1825, and employed Francis Edwards to design a two-storey castellated mansion with octagonal turrets. He grew dahlias in the gardens, which were highly fashionable in the 1820s and 1830s. Broadwood was High Sheriff of Sussex in 1833. Edridge’s work can be found in the collections of Britain’s major museums.

Signed l.l.: GLUCK, oil on canvas, in original Gluck frame27.8 x 23 cm.; 10 7/8 x 9 inchesFrame size 54 x 48.5 cm.; 21 ¼ x 19 ¼ inchesProvenanceFine Art Society, Diverse Paintings by Gluck, November 1932, no. 20;With Anthony Mould in 1982;Private collection, U.K.ExhibitedFine Art Society, Diverse Paintings by Gluck, November 1932, no. 20;Gluck Art and Identity, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, UK, 18 November 2017 to 11 March 2018LiteratureDiana Souhani, Gluck Her Biography, London 1988, p.73;Gluck Art and Identity, ed. Amy de la Haye and Martin Pel, (exhibition catalogue), Yale University Press, 2017, p. 107, ill.Full catalogue available.

Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: E F Green Poonah 1847, oil on canvas76.9 x 63.8 cm; 30 ¼ x 25 1/8 inchesProvenanceChristie’s, London, 5 June 1996, lot 140;Private collection, ScandinaviaExhibitedRoyal Academy, 1851, no. 446In this evocative image, the snake charmer holds a pungi. His assistant has a python draped around him and a mongoose, commonly included in snake charmers’ performances, is tied up in the corner of the composition. A third snake slithers in the foreground. They are standing in a landscape with a fort on a hill in the middle distance, with mountains beyond. Green, while not known for his topographical accuracy, seems to have captured the hilly landscape around Poona, and the building on the rocky outcrop in the present work may be loosely based on the Maratha Hill Fort at Purandhar. The temples may be inspired by the Temples of Parvati at Poona.Snake charmingSnake charming, as it exists today, is thought to have originated in India, and Hinduism has long revered serpents, particularly cobras, as sacred creatures. Originally snake charmers may have been healers, who were able to treat snake bites. Some learned how to handle snakes and could be called upon to remove snakes from places where they were not wanted. They were a familiar sight of Indian street life until the 1970s when the practise was outlawed. The ubiquitous controlled battle between a mongoose, immune to snake venom, and a cobra usually saw the snake charmer handle the lithe mongoose on a rope so that it didn’t kill the cobra.The pungi or tiktiri is an Indian wind instrument consisting of two reed pipes glued together and inserted into the thick end of a gourd – the hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants, which includes melons, cucumbers and squashes. The mouthpiece is at the narrower end of the gourd. One of the pipes is a drone playing a single note, while the other plays the melody, with fingerholes that can be adjusted with wax to vary the pitch. They are often brightly painted. It is the traditional instrument used by snake charmers to control the snake by movement, as while snakes can sense sound, they cannot hear music.Edward F. GreenThe artist was the fifth son of John Green, a merchant in the Levant and his wife, Harriet. The Green family were prominent members of The Levant Company and the Maltese Consular Service. Edward Green’s dates have been incorrectly recorded, but family records indicate he was born on 11 January 1801, baptised on 14 July 1801 at St Botolph’s, Bishopsgate, London, and died in 1884.Green studied at the prestigious Royal Academy Schools in London, where his name appears in the records as Frederick Edward Green / E.F. Green. He was admitted as a probationary student on 11 January 1822, and registered as a full student on 4 April 1822, aged 21, for painting. Green was admitted to the life drawing school on 29 November 1822. He excelled at the Schools and won a silver medal in 1826, for a copy made in the painting school.The artist married Catherine Colona Stilon in Malta on 2 June 1840 and a daughter, Melita (Kate) was born to the couple on 30 April 1841. They had a second daughter Ellen Green. His brother, James Moring Green (the seventh son), was also an artist and Vice Consul of Naples. Two of his other brothers were Consul and Vice-Consul in Greece and this no doubt lies behind the number of interesting paintings he made of Greek subjects.After his wife’s death in 1845, Edward F. Green sold all his paintings, copies of Old Masters and curiosities at an auction by Foster Auctioneers, 54 Pall Mall (which was advertised in ‘The Atheneum’) and travelled to India. He is recorded as having lived in Bombay, now Mumbai, and evidently travelled in the surrounding area, and possibly, further afield. He stayed in India for three years, returning to Malta in 1848 for the funeral of his father-in-law, Dr Guiseppe Stilon, a Royal Naval Surgeon of Italian origin (whose will is in the National Archives, Kew).Green’s motivation to visit India is not known but it seems likely that it was influenced by the loss of his wife. Little is known about Green’s soujourn there, but he was an artist with a taste for travel and a journey to India would have appeared exciting and begun a new chapter in his life. British artists had been visiting India since William Hodges’ arrival in 1780 and the activities of the East India Company and the increased number of permanent British residents created a market for pictures both in India and the United Kingdom. With his eye for local customs and costumes, Green would have found a ready supply of colourful subjects to paint.Exhibition HistoryGreen exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, showing 14 works between 1824 – 1851. He also showed 21 works at the British Institution and exhibited at the Society of British Artists. The artist specialised in exotic and orientalist subjects inspired by his extensive travels in Italy, Greece, Albania, Persia and India, and he specialised in painting particularly evocative oils by highlighting details of local costume and customs. His portrait of a Greek girl in a landscape wearing a Greek costume and embroideries was illustrated as a colour plate in Fani Maria Tsigakou, The Rediscovery of Greece, 1981, col. Pl. V, p. 194. He also worked as a portrait painter, a ready source of income, and in 1830 painted the portrait of Major-General Sir Robert Henry Dick (1785? – 1846), the soldier who lived in India. This was engraved as a mezzotint by Henry Haig circa 1847. A portrait of a young man by Green is in the collection of the Guildhall Art Gallery.His various addresses are recorded as 13 New Bond Street in 1824; at 65 Upper Charlotte Street in 1826; at 16 Howland Street in 1828 and 1829; at Upper Gloucester Place in 1837; all in London, at Strada Mercante in Valletta, Malta in 1840 and 1841; at 2 Titchfield Terrace in St. John's Wood in 1843; in Bombay, India in 1846 and at 17 Nottingham Street, London in 1851.Poona (Pune), MaharashtraPoona (now Pune) in Maharashtra was one of the major military bases of the British East India Company from 1818 after the fall of Peshwa during the third Anglo-Maratha War. A large military cantonment was built to the east of the city. Due to its milder climate, it was the monsoon capital for Bombay, situated almost two thousand feet up in the Western Ghats. It was one of the most important cities of the Bombay Presidency established in 1858 when India came under direct British rule.Poona had long been a place which British artists visited, from Thomas and William Daniell and James Wales in 1780s and 1790s. Wales founded an art school for local painters in the city in 1791 with the help of Sir Charles Ware Malet, British Resident at the Peshwa’s court, although the school ceased to exist after his death in 1795. William Carpenter (1818 – 1899) was in Poona around the same time as Edward Green and drew many watercolours of the city, its inhabitants and the surrounding area. William Simpson (1823 – 1899) also visited Poona towards the end of his time in India, once the railway had been extended there in 1858.

Signed l.l.: F. Grose delin.1771, inscribed u.l. in pencil: Connoisseurs examining an antique Bust, pen and brown ink and wash over traces of pencil on laid paper partially watermarked with the Strasburg Lily, further inscribed with artist’s name and title in a later hand in pencil, verso37.5 x 27.5 cm.; 14 ¾ x 10 ¾ inches, framed size 58 x 46 cm.; 22 3/4 x 18 1/8 inchesThis satirical drawing pokes fun at antiquarianism and art dealing in the late 18th century. Three men examine a bust, the two on the right seem unconvinced of the authenticity of the work, one waving a magnifying glass while the figure in court dress looks a little dubious while the vendor, with two hands resting on the work in proprietorial fashion, seems to be extolling its virtues. Grose treated the subject on other occasions and a print entitled ‘The Antiquerers’ (see below) was made after his work.The British were the foremost buyers of classical antiquities in the 18th and 19th century, with thousands of works, both authentic and undoubtedly fake, shipped over to adorn houses all over the British Isles. The proliferation of dilettantes in the field, and the often totally inexpert practise of what would come to be called ‘connoisseurship’, provided illustrators of the day with plenty of material.The artist was born in Greenford, Middlesex, the son of a Swiss jeweller who modelled George II’s crown. He was a noted amateur draughtsman, but extravagant living exhausted his inherited fortune and forced him to earn an income from his hobby. The results of his regular antiquarian sketching tours were published as The Antiquities of England and Wales, The Antiquities of Scotland and The Antiquities of Ireland between 1773 and his death. He also drew portraits and figurative works, although they are comparatively rare.He was a larger-than-life figure of substantial girth and known as the ‘Greatest Porter Drinker of the Age’. He died suddenly in Dublin and was buried at Drumcondra, where his tombstone records that Grose ‘whilst in cheerful conversation with his friends, expired in their arms without a sigh 18 May 1791 aged 60’.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour on laid paper12 x 9.4 cmThe composition is reminiscent of Liotard’s La Choco - latière, although many of the details are different, notably the style of chair and the arrangement of pots on the tea table. The present drawing shows a tea pot and a silver chocolate pot with a wooden handle, which is probably French. The drawing would appear to be reflecting the status of the subject, as she was unlikely to have been drinking tea and chocolate at the same time.Highmore’s drawings are quite rare, but several examples can be found in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Paul Mellon Collection.Provenance: Sabin Galleries Ltd.

KT 171SOLDWilliam Hoare of Bath (British 1707-1792)Black chalk on laid paper with an unidentified oval watermark14.8 x 19.8 cmProvenanceJohn SuttonHoare, a portraitist in oil and pastel settled in London in the 1720s and was apprenticed to the Flemish painter Giseppe Grisoni. In 1728 he returned to Italy and took Hoare with him. Hoare spent a decade in Italy, studying the Old Masters, meeting British ‘Grand Tourists’, many of whom became future patrons, and perfecting his technique in chalk and pastel.On his return to England he settled in fashionable Bath around 1738, where he remained until his death. He was a founder member of the Royal Academy. This portrait is a charming example of the intimate style Hoare adopted later in his career when painting his family and friends, with rapid, loose strokes which suggest form. It would have been intended as a private image of which very few were worked up into oil paintings.

Signed and dated l.r.: Laura Knight/Dec 1923, watercolour and black chalkSight size 41.2 x 33 cm.; 16 1⁄4 x 13 inchesWhole sheet 45.6 x 39.5 cm; 41.2 x 15 1⁄2 inches; 16 1⁄2 x 15 1⁄2 inchesProvenancePrivate collection, U.K.ExhibitedMK Gallery, Milton Keynes, Laura Knight a panoramic view, 2021, ill. p. 144;Nottingham Castle Museum, Laura Knight & Caroline Walker: A Female Gaze, 2021 (no catalogue)LiteratureEd. Fay Blanchard & Anthony Spira, Laura Knight A panoramic view, 2022, ill. p. 144This striking work by Laura Knight was drawn in 1923 and is a notable example of her ‘female gaze’. Her portrait drawings of women are invariably strong and vital. Here, she adds emphasis with her trademark black chalk creating strong lines, which contrast with the vivid background in blue watercolour.It has been suggested that the sitter was Lilian Ryan, who was married to Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, one of the most fashionable society portraitists in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century and president of the Royal Academy from 1949 to 1954. During Kelly’s tenure as President, Lilian ‘Jane’ Ryan, as she was more commonly known, exhibited under the alias ‘Lilian Jelly’ to avoid accusations of cronyism.From a working-class family, Ryan (c.1898 – c.1980) had been a model for Sir George Clausen in the 1910s, and he introduced her to Gerald Kelly in 1916. They were to marry four years later and spend over fifty happy years together: indeed, Gerald painted her portrait at least fifty times, exhibiting each year at the Royal Academy and titling them ‘Jane,’ his nickname for his wife. Her many likenesses became so recognisable that when Queen Mary was introduced to her, she exclaimed “Jane, of the many Janes!”.Lilian took an interest in painting for herself in the early 1940s, and her husband encouraged her curiosity. She had a natural affinity to oils and she advanced quickly and exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1944, continuing to exhibit there for thirty years.In 1936 Laura Knight was the first woman to be elected to full membership of the Royal Academy since its foundation in 1768. She battled against the structural inequalities of the art world throughout her professional life, from when she was excluded from the life room at Nottingham School of Art in 1891. In 1922 she wrote a pamphlet entitled Can Women Succeed as Artists where she identified inequality of opportunity as a major factor in the near exclusion of women from the arts in Britain. In 1937, she became the first woman to join the selection committee of the R.A., but was not invited to its annual banquet until 1967.Knight campaigned for greater recognition and status for women in the arts throughout her career and was President of the Society of Women Artists from 1932-1968. Throughout her life she took the opportunity to promote herself and her work, fight for equal renumeration and obtain high-profile commissions.

Signed l.r.: Laura Knight, watercolour over pencil 56 x 38 cm.; 22 x 15 inchesProvenancePolak Gallery, London;Christie’s, London, 23 June 1994, lot 9;Private collection U.K.;Sotheby’s, London, 13 December 2018, lot 85, where bought by the present ownerLiteratureJanet Dunbar, Laura Knight, 1975, ill. facing p. 104The subject of this watercolour is Eileen Mayo (1906-1994) depicted as a ballerina. Mayo was an artist and a favourite model of both Laura Knight and Dod Proctor. The work combines Knight’s frank depiction of the female form with her love of the stage and was drawn in the studio rather than at the theatre.Knight’s interest in ballerina’s dressing rooms started in 1919 when she was invited to draw Lopokova, the star of Diaghilev’s ballet at the Coliseum in No. 1 Dressing Room, which gives the present work its title. In her autobiography, Knight describes her fascination with the glow of the electric bulbs, the ballet shoes and the scent of powder and grease paint, and how she was allowed to sit and observe as much as she desired (L. Knight Oil Paint and Grease Paint, 1936, pp. 224-232).Knight worked on an oil of Mayo as a ballerina in 1927, entitled ‘Dressing for the Ballet’ and it was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year. The work was included in Knight’s touring exhibition of the United States in 1931 and was badly damaged, so she cut it down and completely repainted the original. The new composition called ‘No. 1 Dressing Room’, featuring Mayo topless in the identical pink tights and doing her hair in front of the mirror in an extended interior was re-exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1947 and bought by the Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool.Excluded from the life room at Nottingham School of Art in 1891, she battled against the structural inequalities of the art world throughout her professional life and fought for greater recognition and status for women in the arts throughout her career.In 1922 she wrote a pamphlet entitled Can Women Succeed as Artists where she identified inequality of opportunity as a major factor in the near-total exclusion of women from the arts in Britain. In 1936 Laura Knight was the first woman to be elected to full membership of the Royal Academy since its foundation in 1768. She was President of the Society of Women Artists from 1932 to 1968. While she became the first woman to join the selection committee of the Royal Academy in 1937, Knight was not invited to its annual banquet until 1967.

Watercolour over traces of pencil with scratching out and touches of bodycolour and gum arabic. Probably drawn in 182952.6 x 42.5 cmThis previously unrecorded watercolour of a man seated in an interior almost certainly represents the picture dealer and collector Thomas Emmerson (c. 1776–1855). 1 It is similar in style and technique to a group of watercolours of interiors, some including a figure, that Lewis painted in the late 1820s and early 1830s.On the wall behind Emmerson hangs a well-known painting by Pieter de Hooch, A Courtyard in Delft, 1657, now in the Royal Collection. 2 This painting was included in Ralph Bernal’s sale of 37 Dutch paintings at Christie’s on 8 May 1824, lot 33, and bought by the dealer Michael Peacock for £150. It seems that Emmerson acquired it from Peacock, who was a friend and occasional colleague. Emmerson then consigned it, together with other paintings from his collection, to a sale with Harry Phillips on 1–2 May 1829, where it was lot 152. An evening reception was held to attract prospective buyers, and both the reception and the auction were popular events, apparently because the collection had been sent to Carlton House for George IV’s consideration. The de Hooch entered the Royal Collection at this date, by private sale to the King, as recorded in a copy of the sale catalogue owned by another prominent dealer, John Smith. It seems likely that the present watercolour was painted in 1829 to celebrate this important sale.Emmerson began trading around 1805, and in 1820 he moved into 20 Stratford Place, the former home of the artist Richard Cosway. He maintained his London residence until 1854, the year in which his wife Eliza died. In 1833 he also acquired Smallcombe Villa, on Bathwick Hill, Bath, which he remodelled and extended to include a picture gallery, renaming the house Smallcombe Grove.The only other probable image of Emmerson is in a group portrait by the French portrait and historical painter, Innocent-Louis Goubaud (fl. 1780–1847) set in Christie’s auction room during a sale on 14 June 1828, when John Smith bought The Snake in the Grass by Sir Joshua Reynolds for Sir Robert Peel. (Peel was included in the painting, although he did not attend the sale.) Goubaud’s painting was destroyed in the Second World War, but fortunately it had been photographed and it is reproduced in William Roberts’s Memorials of Christie’s. 3 The man likely to be Emmerson is standing behind John Smith and wearing spectacles to enable him to see the auctioneer, the lots on offer and other bidders. 4 If he was short-sighted he would not have needed glasses for close work, such as reading the newspaper shown in the present drawing. His beaky nose, high forehead, receding hairline and slightly sagging jowls are apparent in both depictions. In Goubaud’s painting, Smith is shown seated with his hand raised to bid for the Reynolds painting; also represented are the 2nd Marquess of Stafford, Lady Morgan, John Allnut and James Christie (see photograph below).Emmerson purchased paintings both publicly at auction and privately; for instance, in 1821 he acquired a group of paintings from the Paignon-Dijouval collection, most of which were sold in Paris at auction in December that year. He and Smith worked closely together and conducted a significant amount of business in France. He bought and sold many paintings by Dutch and Flemish masters: works by Teniers, van Ostade, Dou, Metsu, ter Borch and Cuyp, as well as de Hooch, and even Vermeer’s View of Delft passed through his hands. He sold pictures to William Beckford and to George Lucy of Charlecote Park, Warwickshire. Emmerson also sold paintings at well-advertised auctions throughout his many decades of activity, mainly because he attempted to withdraw from the business on more than one occasion. In 1837, no doubt in reference to a sale taking place on 19–20 May that year (Lugt 14726), George Gunn noted that Emmerson was selling again, perhaps for the last time. 5 However, sales of the dealer’s collection continued to take place in London, often without any reserves, indicating that he hoped to dispose of all of his stock. John Smith described him as a rich man in a draft letter to the financially strapped Gunn, but thought he would be reluctant to part with his money. 6 Although Emmerson was predominantly known as a dealer in paintings, he also bought and sold objects of antiquarian interest – armour, furniture, ceramics, objets d’art and vertu.Emmerson also did business with some of Smith’s other clients, such as Sir Charles Bagot, and he was involved in Bagot’s purchase of The Intruder by Metsu (bought by Smith at auction) in 1831. 7 In 1823 he sold a painting by Wouwermans to Sir Robert Peel through Smith for 450 guineas. 8The dealer’s wife Eliza (1782–1854) was a patron of John Clare (1793–1864) and a poet herself: their friendship is well documented in surviving correspondence. In a letter to Clare of 1826, Eliza apologised for not sending him that week’s newspapers, since her husband had yet to read them as he had been abroad. 9 The Emmersons were also close to another of Clare’s patrons, William Waldegrave, 1st Lord Radstock (1758–1825), whom Thomas advised on artistic matters.Lewis painted and exhibited a number of interiors depicting objects of antiquarian interest between c. 1828 and 1834. They enabled the artist to show off his talent for depicting a variety of textures and colours using bodycolour and scratching out in order to enhance the richness of the surface of his watercolour. This work may be compared with his An Interior, in Tate Britain, dated c. 1834, 10 which shows a seated woman stitching lace in a room with antique objects, including the richly embroidered yellow tablecloth and small round blue and red vase seen in the Emmerson watercolour. The Tate watercolour also includes two framed paintings: a Dutch scene and a Venetian subject by Bonington, a tribute to the talented artist, who died young. The tablecloth was a favourite of the artist’s; he also used it in a watercolour depicting John Bulteel of Flete in an interior, exhibited as The Squire at the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1830. 11 This interior also includes four paintings on the walls by or after the Flemish artist Frans Snyders. A further watercolour, Interior of a Studio, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, also shows a framed Dutch painting, probably based on an engraving of de Hooch’s Woman drinking with two men and a maid. 12Literature:William Roberts, Memorials of Christie’s: a record of art sales from 1766 to 1896, London, George Bell & Sons, 2 vols, 1897, facing p. 120, pp. 121–2. Sir Christopher White, The Dutch Paintings in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 2016, no. 84. Charles Sebag-Montefiore with Julia I. Armstrong-Totten, A Dynasty of Dealers: John Smith and Successors 1801–1924, A Study of the Art Market in Nineteenth-Century London, London, Roxburghe Club, 2013. Mark W. Westgarth, A Biographical Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Antique and Curiosity Dealers, Regional Furniture XXIII, 2009, Regional Furniture Society, Glasgow. This watercolour is to be included in two forthcoming articles: by Julia Armstrong-Totten, ‘Partners and frenemies: the networking strategies of 19th century picture dealer John Smith (1781–1855)’ in Susanna Avery-Quash and Barbara Pezzini, eds, ‘A Worldwide Market for Old Masters between the Napoleonic Era and the Great Depression’ (working title), to be published in late 2017/early 2018; and by Briony Llewellyn, who will be writing about the series of antiquarian interiors produced by Lewis in the late 1820s and early 1830s. With particular thanks to Briony Llewellyn, Charles Newton and Julia I. Armstrong-Totten; also to Emma Trehane for her comments about Eliza Emmerson, Mark Westgarth, Susanna Avery-Quash, Mark Evans and Kim Sloan.Notes:1. Charles Newton and Briony Llewellyn confirmed the attribution to Lewis, suggested the identity of the sitter and carried out some of this research.2. RCIN 405331.3. William Roberts, Memorials of Christie’s: a record of art sales from 1766 to 1896, London, George Bell & Sons, 1897, vol. I, facing p. 120, described on pp. 121–2. Roberts gives Goubaud’s name incorrectly as ‘J. Gebaud’.4. Julia I. Armstrong-Totton has suggested this identification.5. Charles Sebag-Montefiore with Julia I. Armstrong-Totten, A Dynasty of Dealers: John Smith and Successors 1801–1924, A Study of the Art Market in Nineteenth-Century London, London, Roxburghe Club, 2013, p. 253.6. Ibid., p. 323.7. Ibid., pp. 75–7, letters 34–8.8. Ibid., p. 24.9. 10 January 1826: ‘I have omitted sending you the Sunday Newspapers on account of Mr E having been in Paris nearly a fortnight, & he likes to see the weekly news on his return from the continent – I expect him home in about a week.’ Egerton MS, British Library, EG2247, fol. 127v.10. Oppé Collection, Tate (TO8173).11. Private collection; sold Christie’s South Kensington, 5 December 2013, lot 138.12. Interior of a Studio, Victoria and Albert Museum (620-1870); de Hooch, Woman drinking with two men and a maid / La Buveuse, 1658, Musée du Louvre (RF 1974-29).Innocent-Louis Goubaud (fl. 1780–1847), The Sale of The Snake in the Grass, 1829.Photograph courtesy of the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London

A sheet of knee studiesExtensively inscribed, dated 15.7.1838, pencil, black, red and white chalkIrregular 25.8 x 21 cmMulready was elected to the R.A. in 1816 and became an Attending Visitor (teacher) at the Royal Academy Life School, where he was noted as still hard at work, like any young student, at the age of 73. His life drawings are acclaimed for the fineness of their execution and the level of detail and understanding of anatomy which they display.Queen Victoria, on her visit to the 1864 R.A. exhibition commented favourably on his ‘fine chalk drawings of the naked figure which dear Albert so admired’.The full pencil inscription on the sheet reveals a close observation of the working of the joint:These sketches are not worth one moments consideration (either in)/ point of form, taste, or execution, but they are well enough to illus trate a mode of study that would be found more useful than any other that I am acquainted with. T he student should first be able to draw from casts.No 1 & No 2The same limb in the very same view.The knee perfectly strait, (sic) but the mus:s (muscles) of No 1 with the least possible action, and the muscles of No 2 in a very strong action, supporting the weight of the body, the centre of gravity being supported near the heel.No 3The same limb in the same view but the knee a little bent supporting the weight of the body.

Oil on canvas50 x 69 cmProvenance: Spink & Son, London, 1977; Private collection, UKExhibited: 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.

Pen and brown ink, drawn on the back of a Royal Academy invitation to elect Associates dated 30th October 1776 inscribed: Jos Nolleke..and signed: F.M. Newton RA./.32 x 37 cmThis spontaneous drawing of 1776 provides a rare insight into the working practices of the sculptor at the height of his powers. There is no recorded statue of Hebe but here she is drawn in three different poses with the eagle, illustrating how Nollekens considered several alternatives of a possible statue in marble. We are grateful to Dr Danielle Thoms for suggesting that the drawing might be connected in some way to the work Nollekens undertook for Lord Yarborough around this time. Yarborough was a significant patron throughout the sculptor’s career, and in 1778 took delivery of the Venus Chiding Cupid which he had commissioned from Nollekens at some point in the early 1770s, possibly as a companion to his figure of Mars acquired from John Bacon. It’s now in the Usher Gallery, Lincoln, and the standing figure of Venus is not unlike these sketches of Hebe, with elongated ‘Giambologna-esque’ limbs and a gently spiralling posture. While there is no known reference to an actual, executed figure of Hebe with the eagle, it is plausible that these sketches were produced with another possible Yarborough commission in mind.The Victoria and Albert Museum has similar drawings by Nollekens of the same date.One (E643 1950) depicts two deities, the one on the right most likely to be a preliminary sketch for his statue of Diana, one of four statues of goddesses executed for the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham between 1776 and 1778 (now in the V&A). These were originally in Lord Rockingham's house in London, but were brought to Wentworth Woodhouse , near Rotherham, Yorkshire after his death in 1782, by his nephew, William Fitzwilliam, 4 th Earl Fitzwilliam. The statues remained at Wentworth Woodhouse until 1986.The other three statues of Juno (1776), Venus (1773) and Minerva (1775) are now in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles. These three originally formed part of a Judgement of Paris series, but it is unclear what happened to the statue of Paris, which would appear to have been replaced by the one of Diana. Another drawing (E581 – 1950) depicts four classical deities, similar in character and date to this group of statues.The reverse shows that Nollekens drew on the back of an invitation to the Royal Academy. Francis Milner Newton, R.A., (1720-1794) was one of the founders of the Royal Academy and its first Secretary. The invitation was sent out to all members of the Royal Academy, summoning them to a General Assembly, at old Somerset House. George III had given apartments in the palace in 1771 and the Royal Academy operated its schools there until it was demolished, to be replaced with the current building. General Assemblies were attended by all available members of the Academy and occurred several times a year. On 4th November Nollekens joined the President, Keeper and Secretary of the Academy and fifteen other members. They heard that the King had formally agreed to recent Academy decisions and passed a resolution that each year, at the exhibition, no painting or sculpture would be moved or taken after down the Royal private view. They then entered into an election, whereby William Parry and John Singleton Copley were elected Associates.Nollekens is generally considered to be the finest British sculptors of the late 18th century. He was born in London on 11th August 1737, the son of a Flemish painter, Josef Frans Nollekens (1702–1748), who had moved from Antwerp to London in 1733. In 1750, he was apprenticed to the sculptor Peter Scheemakers (1691 - 1781), another Flemish immigrant in London.In 1760, he moved to Rome, where he continued studying, as well as working as an antiques dealer, restorer and copier. Sculptures he made in Rome included a marble of ‘Timocles Conducted before Alexander’, for which he was awarded fifty guineas by the Society of Arts, and busts of David Garrick and Laurence Sterne , who were visiting the city.Nollekens returned to London in 1770. His reputation preceded him and, once he had set up his studio in Mortimer Street, he received many commissions from fashionable society and built up a large practice. In Rupert Gunnis’s words ‘he soon became to contemporary sculpture what Reynolds was to painting’ (Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660 – 1851, London 1951). Although he preferred working on mythological subjects, it was through his portrait busts that he became famous, as one of the most fashionable portrait sculptors in Britain.He enjoyed the patronage of King George III and went on to sculpt many leading figures, including William Pitt the Younger , Charles James Fox , the Duke of Bedford and the Marquess of Rockingham. He also made busts of figures from the arts such as Benjamin West . Most of his subjects were represented in classical costume.Nollekens became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1771 and a full Academician the following year. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1771 – 1816. He died in 1823, leaving a fortune of £200,000.

KT382Inscribed and dated l.r.: At Cullercoats/Augt. 27.1847, watercolour over pencil27.8 x 18.5 cm.; 10 7/8 x 7 ¼ inchesProvenance: P. Polak, St James’s;Christopher and Rosemary Warren, Bristol, until 2020Parker's specialised in portrait and genre paintings and in the 1820s he became one of the best-known artists in Newcastle, his work popularised through mezzotints. He helped establish the Northern Academy for the Arts.Parker showed at the Royal Academy and the British Institution and coastal pictures with fisherfolk and smugglers were subjects which he liked to paint.He usually drew watercolour sketches from nature and used them to work up his oil compositions. The present drawing would appear to be one of these.He taught on and off throughout his life, moving to become drawing master at the Wesleyan Proprietary Grammar School in Sheffield and later moved to London. Little is known about his years in the capital.An exhibition of Parker's work was held at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle in 1969.Cullercoats was a small fishing village up the coast from the mouth of the Tyne. From the 1820s artists from Newcastle drew and painted the fishermen and the local area. It remained popular with artists and is perhaps most commonly associated with the great American watercolourist Winslow Homer (1836-1910).

Half-length, seated holding a picture, wearing a black coat with Sir David Wilkie’s The Parish Beadle hanging behind.Watercolour, bodycolour and gum arabic over pencil on buff coloured paper, laid down on original card with colour trials, corners cut.16.1 x 20 cmNicholas William Ridley-Colbourne, 1st Baron Colbourne (1779–1854) of West Harling, Norfolk was a financier and statesman. He was a Whig MP from 1805 for six different seats. He was perhaps best known as a promoter of the arts, supporting the establishment of the British Museum and the National Gallery, of which he was an active Trustee from 1831. He married Charlotte Steele in 1808.Colborne sat on the Committee of the Fine Art Commissioners in 1846. The Commission had been appointed in 1841 to consider the decoration of the newly rebuilt Houses of Parliament, with a view to encouraging and promoting the fine arts in the country at large. In 1846 Partridge sketched and painted a group portrait of the twenty-eight Fine Arts Commissioners (National Portrait Gallery nos. 342, 343a, 343b and 343c). The oil sketch on paper (NPG 343a measuring 47.6 x 86 cm) is similar in technique to the present sketch. Partridge placed the subjects in an idealised setting with sculpture and paintings arranged around the room. The artist donated the oil (which measures 188 x 368.3 cm) to the National Portrait Gallery in 1872.Partridge painted an oil portrait of Colbourne in 1846, the year of the group portrait, and an inscription on the label on its reverse suggests that it was based on a sketch taken for the group portrait, presumably the present work. (This oil portrait, left to his daughter Lucy, wife of Sir Francis Boileau, at Colborne’s death, and measuring 73.7 x 94.3 cm, passed through Christie’s, London, 22 July 1988, lot 227.)Colbourne was an active collector who commissioned Wilkie’s The Parish Beadle (Tate 241) from the artist and gave it to the National Gallery in 1854, together with a group of seventeenth-century Old Masters (NG237-244) which included a work by Rembrandt (NG 243). The Wilkie was presumably given to the Tate Gallery upon its establishment in 1897 and appears in its 1909 catalogue

Signed l.r.: Hugo VP, oil on canvas board, in an antique hardwood frame23 x 17.5 cm; 9 x 6 7/8 inchesFrame size 42 x 35 cm.; 16 ½ x 13 ¾ inchesSOLDLiteratureH. V. Pedersen, ‘Door den Oost-Indische archipel’, 1902, ill. p. 122This sitter is described in the artist’s book of 1902 as someone who worked for the Sultan of Deli in Medan, North Sumatra, at his annual party. It is a rare depiction of a servant portrayed with great sensitivity.Pedersen was born in Copenhagen in 1870. Having studied at the Academy of Arts in Copenhagen he travelled for 20 years in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Penang and Singapore. His older brother worked on a tobacco plantation in Sumatra and in 1898 he first visited Indonesia, travelling to Sumatra, Penang, Singapore, Java and Siam. He painted many portraits of native subjects which he clearly found interesting on his travels as well as landscapes and cityscapes. He worked for the Susuhunan (ruler) of Surakarta in Java, whose kraton or palace Von Pedersen visited (thanks to the Dutch Governor General) and whose portrait he painted and was subsequently given as a token of the Susuhunan’s loyalty to the Queen of the Netherlands. It is now in the Royal Dutch Collection.Eight of the artists’ paintings were published in 1926 in "Peeps at many lands" ed. by J.F. Scheltema.

Signed with monogram l.l., watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour with scratching out and stopping out, on artist’s board stamped with Charles Robertson & Co.’s stamp, with three labels versoCircular 18 cm diam.; 7 1/8 inchesIn the original swept frame with the label of R. Dolman & Son, New Compton Street, Soho, 32 x 32 cm.; 12 ½ x 12 ½ inchesProvenanceProbably William Odling (1829-1921; Paxford House, near Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire;Or William Alfred Odling (1879-1943);Thomas Odling (1911-2002) by descent until 2020ExhibitedThe Watercolour Society of Ireland; (£15:15s);The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour, London, 1903, no. 336Mary Perrin specialised in intense watercolour portraits of female subjects, often drawing them with elaborate hats or coiffures. She also painted landscapes.She exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour between 1896 and 1902 and also at the Royal Academy, London, the Society of Women Artists and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Her work is also recorded frequently in Irish exhibitions. Perrin exhibited at the Water Colour Society of Ireland (WCSI) which was founded in 1870 as the Amateur Drawing Society by an informal group of six well-connected women from Co. Waterford, Baroness Pauline Prochazca, Miss Harriet Keane, Mis Frances Keane, Miss Henrietta Phipps, Miss Fanny Currey and Miss Fanny Musgrave. Eight years after its founding, the organisation briefly became the "Irish Fine Art Society" before settling to its current name in 1888. It held (and still holds) an Annual Exhibition of the work of its members.Her work was frequently praised by contemporary critics who remarked on the ‘richness and power’ of her watercolour (Freeman’s Journal, 8 March 1886, in a review of The Irish Fine Art Society exhibition) and she won many prizes at various Irish societies.One of the backboard labels on this work has her Irish address Fortfield House, Terenure, Co. Dublin, another has a partial address in SW London, …s (Hans?) Crescent, London SW., suggesting that she moved between the two cities.Perrin took an active part in the social life of Dublin and is often mentioned in contemporary newspapers as attending charitable and major social events such as the Viceregal Drawing Room in Belfast and costume balls.The artist’s family home, Fortfield House in Dublin, was bought by the Rt. Hon. John Hatchell (1788-1870) in 1858. He was an Irish lawyer and politician and his daughter Penelope married John Perrin. The house remained in the Perrin-Hatchell family until the death of Mary Perrin in 1929. In her will she left her estate to George Hatchell of Tanganyika. The house was demolished in 1934.

Oil on canvas30 x 25 inches (76.25 x 63.5 cm)Provenance: painted for the sitter but probably given to his father-in-law Thomas Panton (1700-1782); by descent to Jones Panton (c. 1790-1830) of Plas Gwyn, Pentraeth, Anglesey; by descent to his daughter Mary Elizabeth Panton (1825-1907) who married as his second wife, Charles Crespigny Vivian, 2nd Lord Vivian (1808-1886); by descent to Claude Hamilton Vivian (1849-1902), their son; by descent to his grandson, Captain Claude Panton Vivian (1920-44); thence by descentEngraved: by Richard Josey in 1866 (repr. David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, 2 vols. (New Haven & London, 2000) vol.II, p. 216, fig. 301Literature: A.Graves & W.V.Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 4 vols., (London, 1899-1901) vol.1, p.18; J.Steegman, A Survey of Portraits in Welsh Houses, Vol.1 (Cardiff, 1957) p.19, no.5; Mannings, op.cit. [above] Vol.1, p.87, cat.168, Vol.II, p.216, fig.301

Signed l.r.: WARWICK/REYNOLDS, black conté crayon with a black line borderImage 39 x 27.2 cm.; 15 3/8 x 10 5/8 inches, whole sheet 40.8 x 28.9 cm.; 16 1/8 x 11 3/8 inchesFramed size 71 x 61.5 cm.; 28 x 24 ¼ inchesProvenanceThe Fine Art Society, London;Andrew Mackintosh-Patrick until 2023Engraved‘The Art of the Illustrator and his Work Warwick Reynolds’, published by Percy Bradshaw, The Press Art School, Forest Hill, London, 1918A copy of this publication accompanies the drawingThis striking drawing of a black family dates from 1918 and their smart appearance gives the work its title. The baby is elaborately swaddled and wears a complicated bonnet with a large bow. Its mother is stylishly dressed in a checked dress, wears lace at her throat, sports a fashionable dark hat with a feather and has expensive looking earrings and a broach at her neck. She holds an open parasol. The man who is the central figure in the composition swings on his chair and wears a smart striped suit, a patterned waistcoat with a watchchain and a fashionable Newsboy flat hat with a button, often worn for golfing, a cigarette holder balanced between his lips.‘His drawings have always seemed to me to combine an intense sensitiveness for the subject he is illustrating, with intuitive appreciation of type and nationality, an ever-present decorative quality, and virile decision of draughtsmanship; and he portrays struggle, action and character with peculiar relish. …The outstanding qualities of his more careful work are the texture and tone he achieves with his Conté’, Percy Bradshaw, op. cit. p, 6.In 1918 Percy Bradshaw contacted Warwick Reynolds and nineteen other leading illustrators of the day and commissioned a special illustration from each of them. Each artist was given a free hand over the choice of subject, the only stipulation being that the painting or drawing should be representative of his or her technique and that each stage in its composition should be shown. Bradshaw then reproduced in six plates each step in the artistic process and published the 6 lithographs in a portfolio with an introduction and description of the process within a card folder. The accompanying text explores Reynolds’ background, explains his significance, analyses his technique and contains a six-stage description of the development of this work, from inception to completion. The publication of these portfolios was designed to illuminate the secrets and techniques of some of the worlds' greatest illustrators.The first stage illustrated in Reynolds’ portfolio is of the blocking in of the entire composition and the drawing of the head of shoulders of the seated man. In stage 2 he finishes the man. In stage 3 he completes the waistcoat, adds further work to the chair and sunshade and starts on the figure of the woman. The 4th stage shows many additions, to the man’s boots, the woman’s outline and Bradshaw comments on the tonal variation which he describes as a special characteristic of the artist’s illustrations. The 5th and 6th stages see the completion of the drawing with a further varying of the textures and the addition of the final details of the composition. Other artists included in this series were Lawson Wood, F.H. Townsend, Fortunino Matania, Harry Rountree, Claude A Shepperson, Bert Thomas, William Heath Robinson, Frank Reynolds, Cyrus Cuneo, William Russell Flint, Charles Brock, Spenser Pryse, Edmund Sullivan, Balliol Salmon, H.M. Bateman, Louise Wright, W Hatherell, Dudley Hardy and Bernard Partridge.The artist was born in Islington, London. His father, Warwick Reynolds senior was a cartoonist and watercolourist. He was educated at Stroud Green, and studied art at the Grosvenor Studio, St. John's Wood Art School and the Académie Julien in Paris. Reynolds started a career as a magazine illustrator in 1895, which included working on ‘Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday’, The Gem, and other magazines including The Strand, Pearsons’s, The Quiver and The Idler. He was particularly interested in drawing and painting animals and drew the animals at London Zoo in black and white from 1895-1901. He illustrated numerous books on wildlife subjects including Habits and Characters of British Wild Animals (1920), Romance of the Wild (1922) and Dwellers in the Jungle (1925). He also worked in oils, pastels and watercolours and painted portraits and animal subjects.He married Mary Kincaid, the daughter of a master printer, in 1906, and they lived in Glasgow where Reynolds worked as a staff artist on The Daily Record. He died in Glasgow at the age of 46.Reynolds exhibited extensively in Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Edinburgh and the year after he died memorial exhibitions were mounted at the Sporting Gallery in London and Wellington Art Galleries, Glasgow. Examples of his work can be found In Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow and Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Ann Oram, the artist’s mother seated in a chairSigned with initials, dated 1829 and inscribed in pencil l.r.: My dear Mother, pen and brown ink and brown and grey wash over traces of pencilIrregular, 16.7 x 10.7 cmProvenanceWalter Coleridge Richmond, the artist’s son, by family descentGeorge Richmond was the son of the miniaturist Thomas Richmond and Ann Oram (1772-1859), a good-looking woman, possibly of Jewish descent, whose father had been an innkeeper at Kew Green. He has captured her in a moment of repose, her hands in her lap. This drawing was presumably made at the family house at 42 Half Moon Street, Mayfair, which remained the base to which the young George returned if he ran out of money. He records that in 1827 while living at Shoreham, where Samuel Palmer found him lodgings, he tried to live on 10 shillings a week ‘excepting some Tea and Sugar sent by my dear mother from London’ (Hartley MSS, quoted in R. Lister ‘George Richmond’, 1981, p. 16). This work shows traces of the influence of Henry Fuselli who was Professor of Painting and Keeper of the Royal Academy where the artist enrolled aged 15 in 1824.Ann Oram was also painted by her husband Thomas who made a miniature of her wearing a bonnet in 1808, of which a stipple engraving was made by William Holl Jr.

Signed and dated u.r.: Rothenstein 99, red, black and white chalk on brown paper28 x 30.5 cm; 11 x 12 inchesProvenanceGloria, Countess Bathurst (1827-2018)UnframedThe artist’s training at the Académie Julian is reflected in this elegant and rather French looking drawing aux trois crayons drawn in 1899.Countess Bathurst was a successful model for couturiers such as Jacques Fath and Christian Dior as well as featuring in Vogue. Born Gloria Clarry, she married William Rothenstein’s nephew, the lawyer David Rutherston (1925-1975) in 1965, the son of the artist Albert Rutherston (1881-1953).Following husband’s death in 1975, Gloria married Henry, 8th Earl Bathurst (1927-2011) in 1978 and moved to Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire.

Signed l.l.: T. Rowlandson., pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil on laid paper17 x 21.1 cmProvenanceLeger Galleries, November 1967;Dr E. WilkesExhibitedSheffield City Art Galleries, ‘Local Heritage’, 17 April 1970 - 7 May 1970, no. 67Engravedby Samuel Alken as the fourth of four images relating to dining published as a single sheet with the title ‘Different Sensations’ (with subtitles: Preparing for Supper; Waiting for Dinner, At Dinner and After Dinner), 22 October 1789; reissued in 1792 by S.W. ForesRowlandson drew portly diners and gouty gourmands throughout his career. This fine drawing can be dated to circa 1785-9 and shows a maid preparing the diner for his meal. I am grateful to Nick Knowles for his comments about the etching of this subject, notably his view that Rowlandson made the image for the etching in 1792 rather than Samuel Alken who issued the print.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil, with colour tests verso23 x 29.1 cm; 9 x 11 1/2 inchesProvenanceMrs Gilbert Miller;Dr E. Wilkes from 1969ExhibitedLeger Galleries, English Watercolours, 12 November - 31 December 1969, no. 6;Sheffield City Art Galleries, ‘Local Heritage’, 17 April – 17 May 1970, no. 70

KT345A volunteer infantrymanInscribed below: Volunteer Infantry 1798. Original sketch by Thos. Rowlandson., pen and grey ink and wash over pencil39.2 x 24.4 cm; 15 3/8 x 9 5/8 inchesProvenance: Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 20 July 1972, lot 66; Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 5 June 2008, lot 195, where purchased by John Ross; John Ross until 2019In 1798-9 Rudolph Ackerman published Rowlandson’s Loyal Volunteers of London & Environs, with 87 plates which record the uniforms and weapons of the infantry and cavalry.The volunteer corps were raised as a response to the perceived imminent danger of invasion by the French Napoleonic forces. Rudolph Ackermann notes in his introduction that 'At this moment, the enemy had advanced their best regulated legions to the shores of the British Channel; and for the determined purpose of spreading through our land such miseries as have already rendered wretched their own'. The British response was immediate and defiant, and Ackermann goes on to note that when the Loyal Volunteers of London were inspected by the King on 21st June 1799 the roll-call of volunteers, manning 11 different positions, totalled just over 12,200 men. The book serves as a record of that overwhelming show of loyalty, as well as of the uniforms of all the main volunteer forces. In addition, Rowlandson places each individual in a particular drill position, the name and details of which are given in the engraved text beneath each figure.John Ross (1919-2011) kept his collection of drawings and watercolours at his regency home, Knockmore, outside Dublin. Ross was an active member and Chairman of the Irish Friends of the National Collections, playing an important role in securing many great works for the national collection.

Bears signature, pen and brown ink and watercolour over traces of pencil on laid paper, stamped with collector’s mark30.4 x 23.3 cm; 12 x 9 1/8 inchesProvenanceHenry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950), Lugt 2274a; Redleaf Gallery, Tunbridge Wells; Bonham’s, 7 March 2006, lot 46This drawing shows Rowlandson’s more compassionate side and is a poignant portrayal of the treatment of fallen women in late 18th century England. The future looks bleak for the subject who was presumably rounded up for prostitution, as does that of her infant, left in the arms of another woman at the door of the institution into which she is being led by a beadle.Reitlinger was a mining engineer, who made a fortune as a director of the Naraguta Tin Mine and other mining companies in Nigeria. He served as a captain in WWI. In later life he turned collector and art historian and formed major collections of Old Master drawings, Oriental porcelain and Renaissance ceramics. After his death, the Henry Reitlinger Trust operated the Reitlinger Bequest Museum in Maidenhead between 1951 and 1987; it then closed and transferred works to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1991. Reitlinger's remaining personal collections were auctioned at Sotheby's after his death. Part 1 with drawings sold Sotheby's, 9.xii.1953, and was followed by six sales in 1954.His publications include 'Old Master drawings, a handbook for amateurs and collectors' (1922) and 'A Selection of Drawings by old masters in the [V&A] museum collections with a catalogue and notes' (1921).

Pen and brown and grey ink and watercolour over pencil29 x 24 cm.; 11 3/8 x 9 ½ inchesProvenanceSotheby’s, New York, 30 October 1985, lot 30;Andrew Clayton-Payne Ltd;Private collection U.K. until 2025ExhibitedAndrew Clayton-Payne Ltd, An Exhibition of Watercolours by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), 19 November – 2 December 1998, no. 9EngravedDoctor Gallipot placing his Fortune at the feet of his Mistress thro' Physic to the DogsEtching and aquatint on copperplate; drawn and engraved by Thomas Rowlandson and published in London in 1808.A French doctor on bended knee makes a declaration of love to his young and attractive, female patient. The venerable doctor is declaring his love for the lady whilst gesturing towards a bottle (which in the print of the subject contains "Elixir of Life Drops"). A strategically placed syringe suggests how he might be planning to administer the dosage to obtain eternal youth. A painting on the wall behind the couple shows Cupid in a similar pose in front of a naked Venus. A maid stands behind a partially opened door surveying the scene (to be replaced by a footman in the engraving).Rowlandson pokes fun at both the French and licentious quack doctors as well having a customary dig at the attentions of older men towards younger women.There is more than a usual amount of pencil underdrawing in this watercolour which suggests that Rowlandson changed his mind as he worked, at his usual speed.A pen and wash drawing in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge entitled "Doctor Cathartic declaring his passion to Miss Costive" (1798) provides a grotesque variation on this theme, with both suitor and woman older and uglier.Another version of this watercolour in the collection of Yale University Medical Library shows a similar scene in front of a keyboard instrument.Thomas Rowlandson, Doctor Gallipot. Yale Medical Library. Historical Library, Yale University. New Haven, CT.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour, framed in a gold leaf frame11.4 x 18.8 cm; 4 1/2 x 7 3/8 inchesFrame size 37 x 43 cm; 14 ¼ x 16 7/8 inchesProvenance: Mrs Caroline Scott, 1858;Spink; Private collection, U.K. until 2018A similar drawing of a game of billiards is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (TMS 5665). The player about to make a shot is using a mace, with which the ball was shoved rather than struck. The dominant billiard game in Britain from about 1770 until the early 20th century was English Billiards, played with three balls and six pockets on a large rectangular table.The subject was engraved in W. Combe and T. Rowlandson, The Dance of Life, 1817, p. 230.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil, with added signature19 x 26 cm.; 7 ½ x 10 ¼ inchesProvenanceChristie’s, New York, 1 March 1984, lot 446;With Andrew Clayton-Payne;Private collection, U.K.ExhibitedAndrew Clayton-Payne Ltd, An Exhibition of Watercolours by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), 19 November – 2 December 1998, no. 19 (as Figures brawling)The direness of doctors in late 18th century is a perennial Rowlandson theme to which he frequently returns. While a patient slumps in his chair two doctors brawl. The intense fight is joined by a dishevelled woman and who attacks a third man who is vomiting. An empty bottle lies on the floor. This drawing probably dates from 1790s.

With signature in pencil l.r.: Rowlandson, pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil17.5 x 14.8 cm; 6 7/8 x 5 3/4 inchesProvenanceSquire Gallery, London;K.A.T. Davey, C.B.E.; his sale at Christie’s, London, 24 November 1998, lot 27;Christopher Forbes; his sale at Christie’s, London, ‘The Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures and Works of Art II, 20 February 2003, lot 190 (£7170);The Lord Wraxall, acquired at the above sale, until 2019This may be a drawing of Miss Baker. The Bakers of Bayfordbury Park, Hertfordshire, were early patrons of Rowlandson, and a drawing of Miss Baker wearing a hat is illustrated in Bernard Falk, ‘Thomas Rowlandson his Life and Art’, 1949, ill. facing p. 124. The drawings are executed in a similar style.

Inscribed with title l.c.: Human nature is fond of Novelty-Pliny, watercolour with pen and red and grey ink over pencil, on the original hand drawn mount with Gilbert Davis’ collector’s mark on the mount29.5 x 22.5 cm.; 11 ¾ x 8 7/8 inchesProvenanceGilbert Davis; (L.757a) Hulme Chadwick; Sotheby’s, London, 1 April 1976, lot 138; Where purchased by the previous owner, private collection U.K. until 2022?Christie’s London, 20 January/June 1970 ?lot 60 (stencil no 15SSA)This drawing, which dates from 1787-1797, shows the artist at his most cynical in his depiction of old age lusting after youth and beauty. Rowlandson’s sly choice of title reflects his interest in antiquity which manifests itself throughout his career.This drawing has a distinguished provenance. Gillbert Davis (1899- 1983) was an actor and writer, who appeared in the film ‘Passport to Pimlico’. He served during both World Wars and collected over 3000 drawings and watercolours by British artists and foreign artists working in England. This included over 300 works by Rowlandson. His Rowlandson collection was exhibited in London in 1939, 1949 and 1950.Hulme Chadwick (1910-1977) was an architect and industrial designer. He first studied at the Manchester School of Art followed by the Royal College of Art from 1931 to 1934. After the RCA he was an architectural assistant in Manchester and London until 1938 when he was appointed Chief Camouflage Officer to the Air Ministry; an appointment he held until 1944. Some of his ten dummy aircraft factories were so convincing they were heavily bombed during the war. He was also responsible for the concealment of radar stations.After the war he established his own practice. His commissions included aircraft interiors for BOAC and A.V. Roe, exhibition design for Shell Chemicals and the Festival of Britain, interior design for the Daily Mirror, the International Wool Secretariat and British Rail. He was particularly active in the field of industrial design where he was most famous for a range of gardening products for Wilkinson Sword. In 1974, he was made a Royal Designer for Industry.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil12.7 x 21.7 cm; 5 x 8 ¼ inchesProvenanceRay Livingston Murphy;Christie's, London, 8 July 1986, lot 57;Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 14 July 1994, lot 118, where purchased by John RossLiteratureChristopher Anstey, The New Bath Guide or The Memoirs of the Blunderhead Family, 1798, pl. XEngravedBy the artist and published by S.W. Fores, 1798The poem The Comforts of Bath was published on 6th January 1798 and illustrated with twelve lithographs by Rowlandson caricaturing life in fashionable Bath.There are other versions of this subject at the Yale Center for British Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum (and several exist of the other Bath drawings in this series) and it is hard to tell which served as the actual design for the prints as Rowlandson drew repetitions and variations of the popular subjects.This ball took place in the Ball Room of the New or Upper Assembly Rooms built in 1769-1771 from a design by John Wood the Younger. By the end of the eighteenth century public assemblies at Bath had become very popular, attracting large crowds and often ending in uproar. Under the direction of the Master of Ceremonies the evening would usually begin with a formal cotillon and be followed by some English country dancing, as witnessed in the present work, where the couples are dancing in groups of four in a ‘Longways’ formation. This dance frequently degenerated into a rowdy spectacle with wigs flying in all directions. The chaperones sat on the benches fanning themselves to try and keep cool. The organ at the east end of the room was built by in 1771 by Mr Seede, the organ builder of Bristol.John Ross (1919-2011) kept his collection of drawings and watercolours at his regency home, Knockmore, outside Dublin. Ross was an active member and Chairman of the Irish Friends of the National Collections, playing an important role in securing many great works for the national collection.

KT489Inscribed l.r.: T Rowlandson, pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil, extensively inscribed verso: A woman being catched in her Bedchamber with her/Paramour by her husband who had but one Eye She/ran to him, crying aloud that she dream he saw with both’/and therefore, I must know,” added the artful Baggage “whether my Dream be fulfill’d -saying this she shut his good Eye/which gave her Gallant an opportunity of slipping away unper=/ceived by her husband25 x 21.4 cm.; 9 ¾ x 8 3/8 inchesProvenanceWilliam Drummond;Bourne Gallery, bought from the above at The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair c. 1998;Pat Barker, bought from the above, until 2021The inscription seems likely to have been sent to Rowlandson by someone as a proposal for a subject, as the handwriting does not seem to be that of the artist. There is no print of this subject.

Inscribed l.r.: Ht. S., pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencilTop corners cut, 14.7 x 6.4 cm.; 5 5/8 x 2 ½ inchesProvenanceW/S Fine Art;Private collection, U.K. until 2019This charming drawing is typical of the intimate type of work which Sandby drew of his friends and family. His brother Thomas and his wife Elizabeth had seven children; around 1770 Thomas Sandby and his family took up residence in a former dairy in Windsor Great Park where Harriet grew up. In 1786 Paul Sandby's son Thomas Paul married his cousin Harriet, and the couple settled at the Deputy Ranger's Lodge, Windsor. A portrait of her wearing an elaborate hat by William Hamilton (1751-1801) is in the Royal Collection (RCIN 917845).

Oil on canvas34.5 x 39 cm.; 13 3/8 x 15 ¼ inchesThis intimate painting depicts a Chinese woman swimming, her hair loose, wearing a necklace. Her hands are particularly well handled as are the ripples of the water where they break the surface. The subject is highly unusual and no other versions of it are known.The iconography is also unknown. Many China Trade subjects are based on European prints but thus far no prototype has been found. Mermaids recorded in Cheng Zhai Za Ji, a book composed by Lin Kun in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), are described as beautiful females with fairy skin and very long hair, and no fish-like features.In the late 18th and early 19th centuries a school of painting known as the China Trade grew up in the treaty ports of Canton, Macao and Shanghai. Chinese artists produced pictures for the visiting merchants from Europe, India and America as souvenirs. The hybrid style reflects the more stylised approach of Chinese artists and their attempts to work in a more Western style to please their patrons.With thanks to Patrick Conner for his comments on the work.

Gouache and touches of gold, with a painted border24.5 x 20 cmProvenanceSam KenrickJaswant Singh (1838-1895) is seated in a classicised interior with a red curtain, a familiar feature of western portraiture.The sitter who ruled from 1873-1895, was a traditionalist who wore the famous family emeralds, seen here around his neck, at home, and enjoyed hunting in his own jungles.His reign was characterised by prosperity and judicial and administrative reforms. He developed the infrastructure of the state by introducing railways- the Jodphur State Railway- telegraphs and improving the roads.His brother, Pratab Singh, travelled to London where he met the Queen and started a new trend in breeches for horseman to be known as jodhpurs, named after the capital of the state.Upon Jaswant Singh’s death his favourite wife, Raiji, is said to have committed suttee, against imperial authority by the end of the 19th century.

Watercolour, bodycolour and gum arabic20.6 x 33.3 cmJerry Losty notes that this watercolour shows the influence of the lithographic portraits of Sir Charles D’Oyly, which depict ladies with their hair curling in the same fashionable way as in the present portrait.Provenance: Mrs Baldock

Brown wash heightened with bodycolour over traces of pencilSight size 12 x 8 cm; 4 ¾ x 3 ¼ inchesFramed in the original gilt moulding 30.5 x 23.5 cm.; 12 x 9 1/4 inchesThe artist studied in Paris with William Bouguereau and Jean-Léon Gérome. He exhibited both in Paris and at the Royal Academy and Society of British Artists in London where he lived in St John’s Wood. He also exhibited his work with the London dealers Vicars Brothers.Seymour specialized in Orientalist work, taking his cue from Gérome, and may be presumed to have visited North Africa from where the majority of his Orientalist subjects are taken. He favoured working in brown washes which he worked up with bodycolour to achieve an intense and dramatic finish.

Grey wash over pencil with pen and brown ink, on laid paper with a partial Strasburg Lily watermark, indistinctly inscribed verso: .amk(?)/.-.-., mounted, unframed18.9 x 12 cmThe lady in this drawing appears to be using an embroidery frame.

Half-length, seated on a chair wearing a red Kashmir shawlOil on canvas, in original chinese carved and gilded frame, inscribed on label with the sitter’s name attached to the back of the frame27 x 22 cmThe sitter, known as the Mahratta Machiavelli, was the chief minister of the Peshwa administration in Poona who was painted several times by James Wales and J. T. Seton.Nana’s administrative, diplomatic and financial skills brought prosperity to the Maratha Empire during a period of political instability, and he successfully navigated dealings with the British East India Company.After the assassination of Peshwa Narayanrao in 1773, Nana managed the affairs of the empire with the help of a twelve-member regency council known as the Barbhai council of sardars or generals. The council was intended to protect Madhavrao II, the posthumous son of Narayanrao, born to his widow Gangabai, from the Peshwa family’s internal conflicts. The Maratha Empire, although weakened by the Panipat war of 1761, was still significant in size, with many vassal states under a treaty of protection, who recognised the Peshwa as the dominant power in the region.After Nana’s death, Peshwa Baji Rao II placed himself in the hands of the British, provoking the Second Anglo-Maratha War that began the breakup of the Maratha confederacy.The present portrait was presumably based on a print which made its way to China. The original has not been identified. Lamqua, or Guan Quiaochang, had a studio on China Street, Canton, where he worked following the style of George Chinnery quite closely (and undercutting his prices). The two artists knew each other well. Lamqua was a skilful artist who was well known amongst visitors, several of whom had accounts at his studio. His three-storey premises had a shop on the ground floor and a workshop above, where eight to ten painters worked, some making copies after western prints in oil or watercolours, others working on ivory or making pith paper watercolours. Lamqua had his own studio on the third floor. (See Patrick Connor, George Chinnery, 1993, chapter 17.)

Cornelius Varley (1781-1873)Portrait of Elizabeth Varley, the artist’s wifeSigned and inscribed l.l.: Drawn by C. Varley/with his Patent/Graphic Telescope, graphite, on wove paper watermarked: J WHATMAN TURKEY MILLS39.2 x 27.5 cm.; 15 ½ x 10 ¾ inchesProvenanceSpink & Son Ltd.;Mrs A. Cockshut, purchased from the above on 9 May 1980, until 2022ExhibitedSpink & Son Ltd, English Watercolour Drawings, Spring 1980, no. 27The artist married Elizabeth Livermore Straker (1798-1874) on 12 April 1821 at St Giles, Cripplegate, London. She was the daughter of John Straker and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Cornelius had nine children, three girls and six boys. She outlived her husband by a year and is buried at Brookwood cemetery in Surrey.

SOLDSigned in pen and brown ink with initials and dated l.r.: JW.RA./July.1814-, inscribed: Cossack/Tamorfait. Carborlof/King Street Barracks, and again l.c.: It was stated that this man killed/ 14 Frenchmen one morn.g [sic] before breakfast-, pencil29.4 x 22.4 cmThis is a study for a figure in an oil painting, commissioned by the Duke of Northumberland, entitled Portraits of Prince Platoff’s favourite charger and of Four of his Cossacks (in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland, Alnwick Castle). This oil was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1815 (no. 148).After Napoleon’s defeat in April 1814 and the ensuing Treaty of Fontainebleau and Peace of Paris, the Prince Regent invited the Allied sovereigns, including Emperor Alexander I of Russia, to London from 6 to 27 June. There were great festivities and the Emperor threw a lavish levée at the house of the Duke of Cumberland which cost £25,000.Alexander I was accompanied by members of his retinue, who were housed in King Street Barracks (home to the Royal Life Guards) to the north of Portman Square. Their distinctive costumes aroused much comment. Ward clearly shared this interest as he depicted this soldier on at least four other occasions. There is another head and shoulders drawing of him in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (which originally belonged to the Duke of Wellington, P D41-1991) and a full-length study of him seated in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA1938.107). Further examples of drawings and sketches of his colleague Gregory Yelloserf are in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven and in a private collection. An oil of Matvei Ivanovitch, Count Platov in the uniform of a Cossack general by Peter Edward Stroehling (1768–c. 1826), which was probably commissioned by George IV, is in the Royal Collection.Provenance: Christie’s London, 6 February 1968, lot 23, to Christopher Powney, by whom sold to Walter Brandt; Sold by his descendants, Sotheby’s, London, 7–8 July 2011, lot 246 (£11,250)