John Sell Cotman The Elephanta Caves, Mumbai

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

Anna Tonelli (née Nistri) (c. 1763-1846) Portrait of Frances Anderson (née Gosling) (1768-1850), half-length, wearing a white dress and blue headdress, signed on backboard: Anna Tonelli/fe..in Londra/1798, inscribed on backing on reverse: glass taken out and restored 1848 (?). Frances Anderson née Gosling/born 1768 died 1850 at Dorset Gardens/Brighton Pastel, framed as an oval in the original frame 25.5 x 21 cm.; 10 x 8 ¼ inches Provenance By family descent to Pamela Bruce Clarke (1915-1989); By family descent at The Grange, Wendover, Buckinghamshire, until October 2024 Literature N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, online edition, no. J.722.167 Portrait of Robert Anderson (1764-1837) half-length, wearing a black coat and with powdered hair, signed on backboard: Anna Tonelli/fece in Londra/1798, inscribed on label attached to backboard: Robert Anderson M.D. Born 1704 died 1837/at Dorset Gardens, Brighton, Restored 1893. W.B.C./Ancestor of Pamela Bruce Clarke Pastel, framed as an oval, in the original frame 25.5 x 21 cm.; 10 x 8 ¼ inches Frame size 32 x 28 cm.; 12 ½ x 11 inches Robert Anderson was a physician in Brighton who married Frances Gosling in 1788. The couple lived in Dorset Gardens, Brighton. Anna Tonelli, née Nistri, was probably trained in Florence, possibly by Giuseppe Piattoli (1743-1823) with whom she collaborated on a portrait of the family of Granduca Pietro Leopoldo, which was engraved in 1785. At some stage before 1785 she married the virtuoso violinist Luigi Tonelli. It seems highly likely that she came across the work of Hugh Douglas Hamilton in Rome. Tonelli met Lord Clive, ‘Clive of India’, while he was travelling in Italy, and he employed her to make pastels of members of his family. From 1794 she taught drawing to his children in London. She exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794 and 1797, giving her address as 97 Norton Street. The artist travelled with the Clive family to India between 1798 and 1801, moving around southern India with Lady Clive and her daughters. During her time in the subcontinent, she seems to have worked in watercolour or miniature, rather than pastel, and charged twelve to thirty guineas for a miniature. She painted the Rajah of Tanjore and Tipu Sultan on this trip. She returned to Florence in 1801. Tonelli’s work has been confused often with that of Hugh Douglas Hamilton. She is known to have copied his work for Lord Clive, producing portraits in 1790s to add to a series begun by Hamilton. In 1806 the American agent in Paris, Filippo Mazzei, engaged her to bring up his daughter Elisabetta. He provided a description of the family to Thomas Jefferson (letter, 20th July 1806) with a view to them emigrating to the USA, praising the father, a violinist ‘the peer of any other’, the two children (born c.1789–90), and the mother who ‘sings and plays the piano like an expert; knows very well her own language, French, and English; draws and paints with excellent taste; is accomplished in embroidery and all needlework; and knows geography quite well.’ Jefferson’s response highlighted the expense of living in a major city, which may have deterred the family, as by 2 November 1807 they were in Pisa with Mazzei, while by 1809 they seem to have returned to Florence. The Grange, Wendover was owned from 1789 to 1794 by John Barker Church (1748-1818). Barker Church was an English born businessman and the supplier of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was one of the few American revolutionaries to sit in the English parliament. His brother-in-law was Alexander Hamilton the influential founding father of the United States. Hamilton and Church were not only business partners but also friends having married sisters. Hamilton went on to have a love affair with Church’s wife Angelica Schuyler. She is featured in the popular musical ‘Hamilton’ by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Church is referred to as her ‘wealthy husband’.

Signed l.l.: E. Lear, pencil with watercolour 23 x 17.7 cm.; 9 x 7 inches These charming, quirky drawings are characteristic early works by Lear, dating from the late 1820s or early 1830s when he was establishing himself as an ornithological artist. They relate to a group of drawings which Lear gave to Mrs Godfrey Wentworth, who supported his employment by the Zoological Society in 1831, and whom he credited with launching him as an artist. They are imaginary, fanciful subjects drawn with not a little humour, resembling the stylised watercolours of birds painted on late eighteenth century porcelain. Robert McCracken Peck has made the interesting suggestion that Lear and his sister Ann may have been thinking of approaching ceramics companies with them (see Robert McCracken Peck, The Natural History of Edward Lear, 2016, pp. 27-9). Two surviving family albums from the late 1820s, containing a mixture of similar natural history subjects by Edward Lear and his sisters Ann and Sarah, are in the collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Typ 55.4 and 55.27). Sir Edward Strachey was a man of letters and friend of Lear’s, who wrote an introduction to Nonsense Songs in 1895. He lived at Sutton Court, Chew Magna in Somerset and was a neighbour of Lear’s close friend Chichester Fortescue, the Liberal politician whom Lear first met in Rome in 1845.

Laura Knight, DBE, RA, RWS (1877-1970) Anna Pavlova rehearsing The Bacchanal, c. 1910-1911 Signed l.l.: Laura Knight, oil on canvas 45.5 x 41 cm.; 17 5/8 x 16 1/8 inches Provenance Peter and Vera Chadwick, 1977 (according to an inscription on the previous frame); Harry Greatorex, 1988; His sale at Sotheby’s, unidentified sale 1988(?), lot 73; Private collection U.K. until 2025 Knight captures the grace, elegance and kinetic energy of the most famous ballerina of her day on stage performing her most dynamic and erotic role. Pavlova (1881 – 1931) visited London with Sergei Diaghilev's company for the first time in the summer of 1910. She caused a sensation with her dramatic Dance Bacchanal from Pepita's ballet The Seasons, choreographed by Mikhail Fokine, which was to become one of her signature roles. An erotic duet, performed with Mikhail Mordkin saw the dancers throwing garlands and striking sensual poses with theatrical abandon, wearing Greek tunics. Knight was mesmerised by the Ballets Russes when they performed in London during the years before the First World War. In particular, she became enamoured with the dancer Anna Pavlova. In her autobiography, 1965, Knight wrote: ‘The whole look of Pavlova had perfection of finish … But whatever the beauty of form may have been, she possessed an attraction all her own ... a something not of this world.’ (L. Knight, The Magic of a Line, p. 161). In 1911 she made sketches of Pavlova at the Palace Theatre, continuing her interest in the figure in motion. Pavlova often invited Knight to her home, The Ivy House in Golders Green next to Hampstead Heath, which she bought in 1912, so she could sketch her. Knight drew Pavlova’s portrait many times as well as sketching her backstage and made small enamel pieces recording her dancing. Her work helped cement the dancer’s reputation in Britain and beyond. Pavlova settled in London after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Pen and grey ink and wash, inscribed verso and dated: Kerswell Oct.3.1812 23.7 x 37 cm.; 9 ¼ x 14 ½ inches Provenance Private collection, U.K. until 2025 Kerswell is a hamlet in the Teignbridge district of Devon north-east of Exeter.

Oil on panel 22 x 27 cm.; 8 ¾ x 10 5/8 inches Provenance The artist’s widow, Lady Kelly; Michael Parkin Fine Art Ltd; From whom purchased by J.G. Cluff, private collection U.K. until 2022 Born in London of Irish descent, Kelly was educated at Cambridge University, later living and studying art in Paris where he met Degas, Monet, Renoir and Sickert. Whistler was also an early influence as were Cézanne and Gaugin. Kelly was an enthusiastic traveller, visiting many countries from Egypt to China. His sketches of his travels are pleasingly spontaneous and tend to be painted more freely than his finished portraits. He became a successful society portraitist whose sitters included Somerset Maugham, whom he painted several times, and he undertook numerous state portraits. Kelly is represented in many public collections, including the Tate, which holds seven works. He had retrospective exhibitions at the Leicester Galleries in 1950 and in 1957 at the RA. He was elected RA in 1930, was the Academy's Keeper from 1943-45 and President, defeating Augustus John in the election, from 1949-54. Kelly held a number of official positions, such as membership of the Royal Fine Arts Commission, 1938-43, and was knighted in 1945. Between 1909 and 1970 Kelly exhibited over 300 works at the RA. During his lifetime his work became well known through popular prints.

Signed with initials in pencil l.r.: HBB, watercolour 24 x 17 cm.; 9 ½ x 6 ¾ inches Provenance Pietro Raffo, until 2022 £2200 This watercolour shows the influence of J.M.W. Turner, whose watercolour studies were copied by Brabazon.

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.

KT524 Signed and dated l.c.: L Francia 1828 (?), watercolour with scratching out 19.7 x 27.5 cm.;7 ¾ x 10 ¾ inches Provenance Sotheby’s, London, 7 June 2006, lot 356; Bonhams, London, 23 September 2008, lot 40 This charming view of London from Greenwich is painted from a similar vantage point to the artist’s famous self-portrait in Greenwich Park, in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Calais (Inv.86-57-2). The towers of the hospital can be seen in the present drawing, with the dome of St Paul’s cathedral looming between them on the horizon. Francia was Bonington’s teacher whose work provides an important link between British and French watercolour painting in the early nineteenth century. A native of Calais, he left for London in 1788 after the outbreak of the French Revolution and remained until 1817. He established a practice as a drawing master in London and a reputation as a painter of marine and landscape watercolours. He attended the Monro ‘Academy’, made sketching tours, was secretary of the Brothers, a sketching club of which Girtin was a member and was also secretary of the Associated Artists in Water Colours. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1795-1822. Francia returned to Calais in 1817. He gave Bonington his first professional lessons in watercolour in Calais as well as other artists including William Wyld, Eugène Isabey, Tesson and Collignon. British and French artists who passed through the town on a tour of the coast or en route to Paris or London would visit him.

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).