William Henry Hunt OWS Primroses

Pencil on laid paper, partially watermarked and countermarked 1819 14.5 x 10.9 cm.; 5 ¾ x 4 ¼ inches Provenance: Cyril and Shirley Fry until 2021 Literature: J. Witt, 'William Henry Hunt (1790-1864)', 1982, no. 369 Exhibited: 'Hunt Exhibition Fry Collection', 1967, no. 17 (2) This work dates from c. 1820.

Signed l.r.: W. HUNT, watercolour over pencil with scratching out 34 x 24.5 cm.; 13 3/8 x 9 5/8 inches Provenance J.P. Heseltine (1843-1929); Christopher W. Witt, Buckinghamshire; The Bourne Gallery, Surrey; David Pike (1936-2024) Literature J.P. Heseltine, John Varley and his Pupils, W. Mulready, J. Linnell and W. Hunt. Original Drawings in the Collection of J.P.H. 1918, ill. p. 13; John Witt, William Henry Hunt (1790-1864) Life and Works, with a catalogue, no. 539, ill. pl. 66 This shows Sarah Hunt, the artist’s wife, aged about twenty-one reading a letter. The couple were married in 1830 and Hunt used his wife as a model in 1830s, when this work was drawn. It may be compared with a similar example in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum entitled ‘Love Missive' (J. Witt, no. 529). The same chest and chair can be seen in both works. John Postle Heseltine (1843-1929) was a stockbroker and senior partner in the family firm, Heseltine, Powell & Co. He was a draughtsman and etcher, a collector oil paintings, drawings and watercolours of the English and Continental schools and a Trustee of the National Gallery who advised on purchases.

Signed l.r.: W. HUNT, pencil, tiny sketches of figures and a list verso, on wove paper 12 x 8.4 cm.; 7 ¼ x 4 ¾ inches Provenance: Cyril and Shirley Fry until 2021 Literature: J. Witt, 'William Henry Hunt (1790-1864)', 1982, no. 370 Exhibited: 'Hunt Exhibition Fry Collection', 1967, no. 17 (1) This drawing dates from circa 1820. Hunt drew the same girl on another occasion in a similar pose (Rossetti Collection, J. Witt, ibid. no. 492).

Signed with initials l.r.: HBB, watercolour and bodycolour over pencil, inscribed verso: Siracuse and stamped with collector’s mark Provenance Gilbert Davis (L. 757a.); Edward Seago, his estate sale at Christie’s, London 1 March 1977, lot 94; Where bought by B.M. Williams; Christie’s, London, 21 November 2007, lot 145, where acquired by the previous owner until 2025 Gilbert Davis (1899–1983) built up a large collection of watercolours in the middle of the twentieth century. He sold the bulk of his collection in 1959 to the Huntingdon Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. Edward Seago RBA, RWS (1910-1974) was one of the most popular British artists of 20th century, who painted in oils and watercolours.

Oil on board, inscribed verso: Grindlay, inscribed on old backing paper by one of Edward Grindlay’s children: An early James Gunn/My father admired it in the/Studio so James framed it/and gave it to him 22.4 x 14.2 cm.; 8 7/8 x 5 5/8 inches Frame size 34 x 24 cm.; 13 3/8 x 9 ½ inches Provenance Given by the artist to Edward Grindlay; By descent until 2021 This beautiful view of the Place de la Concorde was done in 1911-1912 when Gunn studied at the Académie Julian in Paris under Jean Paul Laurens. It is previously unrecorded and a significant addition to his rare small pictures of Paris. While in Paris Gunn started to make tonally delicate panels of the city on small boards, using a muted palette reminiscent of Whistler, capturing street scenes with tiny figures drawn with a few strokes of the brush. He also made regular visits to the Louvre to draw from the Old Masters and rented a room at 2 bis rue Perel. His small pictures of Paris are not numerous and are highly sought after. Gunn has painted this work from near the centre of the Place de la Concorde, looking towards the eastern end of the Champs Elysées, with the Grand Palais visible behind the trees of the Jardin des Champs-Elysées. The statue on the plinth is one of the famous Chevaux de Marly by Guillaume Costou, brought from the Chateau de Marly in 1719 and now in the Louvre. James Gunn attended drawing lessons from the age of five. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art, the Edinburgh College of Art before he went to Paris. Gunn returned to Edinburgh in 1912 and also spent time in London. Early in 1914, at the instigation of the London dealer W.B. Paterson, he travelled widely in Europe, sending pictures back home, and revisiting Paris and Étretat. He enlisted with the Artists Rifles in 1915. Gunn gave a speech to the Glasgow Art Club in November 1955 and reminisced about his early career, ‘…In Paris I studied at the Académie Julian under Jean Paul Laurens…I returned from Paris with a collection of sketches made in the streets and by the river. Many of these passed through the house of Anna. There they were seen and some were purchased by a dealer from Bond Street, W.B. Paterson, brother of the distinguished Scottish Academician, James. He gave me a contract, paid me a retaining fee and I undertook to provide him with not less than thirty pictures a year. At his instigation I went to Spain at the beginning of 1914. There I travelled, seeing and painting, till the echoes from Sarajevo warned that the good days were soon to end’. Edward ‘Teddy’ Grindlay and Gunn met in 1917 towards the end of WWI when they were commissioned into the 10th Scottish Rifles, the beginning of a life-long friendship. Gunn’s drawings of his fellow officers were published in a book ‘The 10th Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles): a Record and a Memorial 1914-1918’. Grindlay saw this oil sketch in Gunn’s studio and admired it, so the artist had it framed and gave it to his friend. Edward and his wife Evelyn were both painted by Gunn who also painted a conversation piece of their house at 1 Newton Grove, Bedford Park in London in 1927. They later moved to Westcott near Dorking. They owned many paintings and drawings by Gunn who used his friend as a model for Maurice Baring in his famous conversation piece with Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton, which is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG3654). He received commissions from many of the leading figures of the day and painted the Royal Family in another famous conversation piece at Royal Lodge, Windsor (NPG3778). Gunn had a successful career as a portrait painter and in 1961 was elected a member of the Royal Academy.

Signed with initials l.r., pen and brown ink 14.5 x 12 cm.; 5 ½ x 4 ¾ inches Provenance: Mrs F.L. Evans; With Colnaghi, 1951, catalogue no. 59 Duncan Beresford-Jones until 2000 The Shah of Persia presented a group of Arabian horses to the Prince Regent, commemorated in a painting of 1819 by H.B. Chalon (Tate Britain, TO2357). Landseer was also attracted to the subject and two versions of oils of an Arabian stallion with an Attendant in Persian dress are known, see Richard Ormond, Sir Edwin Landseer, 1982, p. 54. The Shah sent an Ambassador, Mirza Abdul Hassan Shiraz, to London in 1819 to discuss with Lord Castlereagh, the Foreign Secretary, aspects of the Anglo-Persian treaty concluded by Sir Gore Ouseley in Tehran in 1812, and more recently revised. That treaty had established an Anglo-Persian alliance against a possible Franco-Russian one and the Shah was hoping for positive assurances that England would protect Persia in the event of a Russian invasion. The Ambassador left Tehran in October 1818 laden with presents from the Shah, including eighteen selected Arabian horses for the Prince Regent. The horses travelled with the Ambassador to Constantinople and then the British government organised their transport to London, an expensive undertaking arranged by a Mr George Willcox and costing over £1500. The presentation of the Shah’s gifts was listed in The Times of 24 May and took place at Carlton House, the Prince Regent’s London residence. There are seven horses pictured in Chalon’s painting, and it is not known how many of them survived the journey, but the present drawing presumably shows one of them. Mirza Abdu Hassan Shiraz’s visit aroused considerable social and popular attention but the visit was not a success, as following the defeat of Napoleon and the conclusion of an alliance with Russia the British no longer attached much importance to their Persian alliance.

Watercolour and bodycolour, signed and inscribed verso: Castle of Kilchurn on Lough Awe/Western Highlands of Scotland/T. Walmsley and inscribed in another contemporary hand: J. Kemble, unframed 37.1 x 50.4 cm; 141⁄2 x 19 3⁄4 inches Provenance The Leger Galleries Ltd., London, 1965; Private collection, U.K. until 2020 Walmsley was born in Dublin into a military background. After a quarrel with his family, he moved to London and worked as a scene painter at the Royal Opera House. In 1788, he returned to Ireland for two years to work at the Crow Street Theatre. The inscription ‘J. Kemble’ may be a reference to the actor John Philip Kemble (1757-1832). Walmsley regularly exhibited landscapes at the R.A., including many of Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Wight. Much of his work was aquatinted and published. At the end of his life he retired to Bath. Examples of his drawings may be found in the British Museum, the V&A, the Ashmolean in Oxford and many other institutions.

KT514 Signed and dated on mount l.l.: E. Dayes 1791, pen and grey ink and watercolour with touches of bodycolour over traces of pencil on wove paper, on original laid paper mount 21 x 13.9 cm.; 8 ¼ x 5 ½ inches Provenance Sotheby’s, 25 January 1989, lot 54, where bought by James Hall, his collection no. 23, until 2022 The Abbey was founded for the Cistercians between 1175 and 1178 by Hervey de Montemarisco, Marshall of Henry II, who became its first abbot. At the Reformation Henry VIII granted the Abbey to Sir Osborne Itchingham. The church is one of the longest Cistercian churches in Ireland.

KT633 Fragments of a colossal statue at the Memnonium, Thebes Signed l.l.: 'David Roberts. R.A.' and inscribed and dated 'Memnonium, Thebes Dec. 5th, 1838', further inscribed l.r.: 'Dimensions of the statue/Between the shoulders [?] 26 feet/Circumference of the Head 54"/Shoulder to the elbow 13" [5]', watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour on blue-grey paper 32.7 x 48.9 cm; 12 7/8 x 19 ¼ inches PROVENANCE Possibly David Roberts; Christie's, London, 13-20 May, 1865, lot 67 as 'Thebes: Fragments of the Colossus of Rameses'; Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 15 March 1990, lot 42; with Spink, London, 1990; Christie's, London, 16 November 2006, lot 128 This temple on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor, was visited twice by Roberts during his voyage on the Nile in 1838. On the outward journey, on the way to Abu Simbel, he had visited all the temples on both sides of the Nile at Luxor, and on 21 October hired donkeys to visit the ruins at Gurnah on the west bank, noting in his journal: 'The head and shoulders of the Memnon lying on the ground is enormous one can only wonder how it got there - the trouble of dislodging it must have been almost equal to the erection ...'. The present drawing was executed on the return journey when he was on the west bank of the river at Luxor from 3 to 5 December 1838. Roberts noted in his Journal 'I have been very industrious today, thanks to a Thunder Storm, a most uncommon thing in this part of the world - The sun was quite obscured and the peals of thunder were very loud accompanied with rain.... Made four large coloured sketches two of the Memnonium and two of Medinet Habou.' (Eastern Journal, National Library of Scotland). The present drawing was executed on the spot, although it is possible that the colouring was completed later during the trip. This drawing was used as the basis for the drawing which was eventually lithographed. This temple was called the Memnonium or the Tomb of Osymandyas, one of the names of Rameses II, the king to whom it was dedicated. It is now more commonly known as the Ramesseum and is the temple from which another colossal head was taken to the British Museum, where it inspired Shelley's famous sonnet Ozymandias.

Chale Bay- looking out to sea from St Catherine’s Down and Oratory, Isle of Wight Watercolour over traces of pencil. 32.3 x 54.1 cm.; 12 ¾ x 21 ¼ inches Provenance Spink, London, sold 11 October 1956; Private collection U.K., until 2020; With Karen Taylor Fine Art; Private collection, U.K. until 2024 Turner of Oxford was in Sussex in 1846 from when this beautiful drawing may well date, as he made a large watercolour from near Portsmouth with the Isle of Wight in the distance in that year. He has chosen a calm day and the stillness of the shepherds amplifies the awe with which they are observing the beauty of nature. The location has an interesting history. In 1313, a ship, the St Mary of Bayonne, was blown off-course and ran aground on the treacherous Atherfield Ledge in Chale Bay. Its cargo of white wine was sold illegally by the sailors and many barrels found their way into the cellars of Walter de Godeton, Lord of the Manor of Chale. The ship came from Gascony, then part of King Edward II’s kingdom. He was not amused, and Walter de Godeton was fined by an ecclesiastical court. The Pope heard of the incident and, to avoid excommunication, de Godeton was ordered to build an oratory and beacon on Chale Down as penance.