The head of a brown cow

KT682 Laura Knight, DBE, RA, RWS (1877 - 1970) Susie, 1928 Etching, 18/40, signed in pencil in margin l.r., editioned l.l., published 1928 Plate size 25 x 45 cm.; 9 ¾ x 17 ¾ inches Framed size 47 x 56 cm.; 18 ½ x 22 inches Susie was the daughter of a fisherman from Mousehole, Cornwall, near Lamorna where Knight lived. She also features in Knight's 1929 painting Susie and the Wash Basin (Harris Museum & Art Gallery, PRSMG : P356).

Two, bodycolour, one on paper watermarked: SMITH & ALLNUTT 1815 Each 20.5 x 33.5 cm Provenance: Mrs Baldock The artists of the Patna School specialised in the depiction of everyday activities for their British patrons. Traditionally described as the work of the Company School (reflecting the patronage of the East India Company employees) this unique genre evolved as the painting styles of Western and Mughal traditions merged.

Watercolour, with a pencil sketch of a house in a landscape verso, on laid paper 11.2 x 13 cm Provenance: William Arnold Sandby; John Manning, London; Private collection, UK until 2017 William Arnold Sandby (c. 1828-1904) was the great-grandson of Thomas Sandby, author of the first book about the artists, Thomas and Paul Sandby-Royal Academicians, 1892, and the historian of the Royal Academy (two volumes of its history published in 1862). He had a large collection of the work of his forebears, helped organise their first exhibition at Nottingham Castle Museum in 1884 and bequeathed many of their works to museum collections.

Chinese School early 19th Century A fish with a pointy nose Watercolour with silver on pith paper, unframed 21 x 31 cm.; 8 ¼ x 12 ¼ inches Mount size 35 x 48 cm.; 13 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches Provenance Sir John Witt (1907-1982), by descent until 2022

Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Cave on the Island/of Elephanta/Dec 9th. 69 and further signed by another, watercolour over pencil. The artist visited the famous Hindu temple carved into the rockface on the island of Elephanta. Constructed between the fifth and sixth century, the temple is part of the ‘City of Caves’ devoted to the cult of Shiva. For further work by this artist please see the catalogue link and enquire about availability.

Dunbar looking to Elbedde-Kandy Inscribed l.r.: Dunbar looking to/Elbedde-Kandy. Between Dimbola &/Dickoya-6631 ft, and signed by J.T. Beckett, Mr Naylor …, C. Swinburnton and one other, watercolour over pencil 27 x 43 cm.; 10 5/8 x 16 7/8 inches Signs of deforestation, of which the artist was critical, are clearly evident in this watercolour. Dunbar is 60 miles east of Colombo.

Watercolour over pencil 20.5 x 38 cm.; 8 1/8 x 15 inches Provenance Walter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the son of the artist, by descent; With Radnorshire Fine Art Richmond continued to draw and paint landscapes throughout his successful career as a portraitist. These works remained private and stayed mainly in his family. This beautiful sketch has a directness which reflects his enjoyment of the opportunity for contemplation when drawing from nature.

Signed and dated l.r.: SOPHIA BEALE/1869, watercolour heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic 34.5 x 60 cm; 13 ¾ x 23 ½ inches Provenance Brightwell’s, Leominster, 12 January 2004; where purchased by Paddy Docker-Drysdale (1929-2020); By descent until 2022 This substantial landscape of Heidelberg is a fine example of a detailed Pre-Raphaelite landscape. The skillful use of bodycolour applied with a dry brush creates a pleasing richness which combined with the play of dappled sunlight on the mossy rocks in the foreground and the careful selection of colours elevates the view well above topography. Beale was born in London to Frances, née Smith, and Lionel John Beale, a surgeon. Her sister, Ellen Brooker Beale, was also an artist with whom she collaborated. Sophia and Ellen Beale went to Queen’s College School, London and took art lessons at the popular Leigh’s Academy run by the artist Matthew Leigh. They copied extensively after the Old Masters and antiquities in the National Gallery and British Museum. From 1860 to 1867 the two sisters shared a studio on Long Acre in Covent Garden. In 1869 Sophia Beale travelled in Germany and France, when the present work was drawn, and in 1872 she returned to Paris, where she took classes run for women at Charles Joshua Chaplin’s (1825-1891) studio (where Mary Cassatt also studied), financing her studies by working at M. Bertin’s studio. On her return to London, Beale used the money she had earned in Paris to open an art school in Albany Street, near Regent’s Park, teaching the latest Parisian techniques. Beale was a feminist and in 1889 among the two thousand signatories to the ‘Declaration in Favour of Women's Suffrage’ formulated by the Central Committee for Women’s Suffrage. Beale also advocated for the Royal Academy and the universities to allow greater access for women. The artist exhibited extensively during her lifetime at the Society of British Artists in Sussex Street, where she showed around thirty works, while she also had four works accepted by the Royal Academy between 1863 and 1887. Between 1868 and 1882 she exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy and with the Society of Women Artists from 1860 to 1881. She published four books, A guide to the Louvre (1883), The Amateur’s Guide to Architecture (1887), The Churches of Paris from Clovis to Charles X (1893) and her autobiography, Recollections of a Spinster Aunt (1908). She also wrote articles including a review of the 1894 exhibition ‘Fair Women’ at the Grafton Gallery in London for The American Architect and Building News (1876-1908), Boston 45, no. 975 (see Meaghan Clark, Fashionability, Exhibition Culture and Gender Politics: Fair Women, 2021, p. 21).

KT727 English School, 1870s Russula emetica, commonly known as the sickener Watercolour 25.5 x 35.6 cm.; 10 x 14 inches In the 1870s the Keswick Sketching Club, an amateur art group in the Lake District was founded by John William Oddie (1839–1923) with the support of John Ruskin (1819–1900). This drawing was made by one of its members. Keswick Sketching Club is believed to have been instigated in the 1870s by the artist and designer John William Oddie (1839–1923), who lived at Lyzzick Hall, Keswick. Oddie studied at Wadham College, Oxford in the 1860s and became a Life Fellow at Corpus Christi College. It appears that it was Oddie who facilitated Ruskin's obtaining rooms at Corpus, where he was admitted as an Honorary Fellow. Oddie and Ruskin were in regular contact, and in 1874 Oddie enlisted Ruskin's assistance with Keswick Sketching Club. Ruskin responded with enthusiasm as the club's activities gave him opportunity to put into practice what he was promoting in his Oxford Drawing School and his various drawing manuals. Ruskin advises Oddie on sketching exercises for the Club, and writing to Oddie in 1874 he states that 'certainly there is one exercise — which I must send you example of Outline of a strawberry leaf'. In April 1875 Ruskin sends his critique to the Club, writing: 'To the Members of the Keswick Sketching Club, / In the work of the Club generally I find the sense of colour excellent, the industry great; the ability in many cases beyond that of most professed artists, several pieces of texture and local hue being given with singular feeling and skill.' In the 1880s Ruskin and Oddie continued their involvement in art teaching in the Lakes, founding the Keswick School of Industrial Arts. Oddie later established the Lyzzick Hall Art School.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil 11 x 17.2 cm.; 4 ¼ x 6 ¾ inches Provenance: Sotheby’s, London, 29 October 1964, lot 248; Ann Spokes Symonds, Oxford Ann Symonds worked for the Fine Art Society in 1960s.