Edith Martineau, A.R.W.S. The path through the trees

Signed l.r.: Edith Martineau, watercolour with scratching out and touches of gum arabic, inscribed on label attached to backboard: Hampstead Heath, looking/over to Harrow on the Hill, Brent/Reservoir, painted in early spring/from just beyond Spaniards old/Fir Trees in 1905. Edith Martineau A.R.W.S./5 Eldon Road/Hampstead/property of Miss Emma Lister/Hampstead Heath, and again on backboard: E.L. Lister/bought 1905, and with provenance details on a second label, in original gilded oak frame28 x 39.5 cm.; 11 x 15 1⁄2 inchesProvenanceMiss Emma Lister, Upper Heath Street, Hampstead, 1905, a bequest to her great-nephew Walter Pierre Courtauld (1910-1989), November,1915; Private collection, London until 2021Edith Martineau, together with her sister Gertrude, was one of a small group of female artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelites.The daughter of Dr James Martineau, a Unitarian minister and theologian of Hugenot descent, the artist was born in Liverpool. After studying at the Liverpool School of Art and Leigh's School of Art, later known as Heatherley’s, the first British school to allow women into their life classes, Martineau became one of the first women to be admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1862, aged nineteen, for seven years and then a further two.The artist exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1877-1890, the Grosvenor Gallery, the Dudley Gallery (with many other followers of the Pre-Raphaelites) and the New Society of Painters in Water Colour. Martineau contributed to numerous annual exhibitions at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, the Manchester City Art Gallery and the Society of Women Artists. In 1888 she was elected an associate member of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, one of only nine women. Her work was also exhibited at the Palace of Fine Arts in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.By 1901 Edith Martineau, who never married, lived at 5 Eldon Road in Hampstead near the Heath, with her sisters Gertrude and Mary.The Heath, depicted here in spring with the new grass appearing beside the remains of the winter bracken became a favourite subject. Wyld's Farm can be seen on the right of the composition; it was located just past Jack Straw's Castle where Wyldwood Road is today. Martineau painted the Heath's landscape and winding paths at different seasons until her death from influenza in February 1909.She held her first major exhibition together with her elder sister Gertrude (1837–1924), also a watercolourist, at the Modern Gallery in 1906. A second joint exhibition was held at the New Dudley Gallery in 1910 in commemoration of Edith Martineau's death.Martineau worked on a small scale in watercolour primarily and is known for her delicately painted and meticulous landscapes which owe much to the Pre-Raphaelites, and genre paintings. She worked in a number of styles, experimenting with classicism, aestheticism and portraiture. Examples of her work can be found in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and other institutions.Her aunt Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was a Victorian woman of note, a social theorist, political economist, journalist and writer.

Inscribed verso: Primrose Hill coloured on the spot by/Girtin, watercolour over pencil on oatmeal paper.19.7 x 48.7 cm.; 7 ¾ x 19 inchesProvenanceArthur Boney, his sale, Sotheby’s, 7 October 1947, lot 34, bought by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. , London;Ray Livingston Murphy (1923-1953), New York, by 1950, his sale, Christie’s, 19 November 1985, lot 35; Robert Tear, OBE (1939-2011), his sale, Sotheby’s, 9 July 2014, lot 189;With Guy Peppiatt Fine Art;Private collection, U.K. until 2024LiteratureT. Girtin and D. Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, 1954, no. 416, p. 191;G. Smith, Thomas Girtin (1775-1802): An Online CatalogueArchive and Introduction to the Artist, TG1761ExhibitedNew Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Prospects, 1950, no. 18., pl. 9b;Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, London, British Drawings and Watercolours, 2015, no. 17This panoramic landscape has been identified as showing Primrose Hill in north London, on the basis of an inscription on the back of the drawing, and Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak consequently dated it to 1800–1801. The area was then undeveloped. It did not become a place of leisure and recreation until well into the nineteenth century, since when the rapid expansion of the city northwards changed the appearance of the landscape so greatly that it may never be possible to confirm the identification of the view with certainty.The work may well have been coloured on the spot, as the inscription suggests, as it is worked in a limited palette without much foreground detail.

Signed l.l.: E. Lear, pencil with watercolour, gum arabic and pen and black ink17.7 x 23 cm.; 7 x 9 inchesThese 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.

Pencil on laid paper, partially watermarked and countermarked 181914.5 x 10.9 cm.; 5 ¾ x 4 ¼ inchesProvenance: Cyril and Shirley Fry until 2021Literature: J. Witt, 'William Henry Hunt (1790-1864)', 1982, no. 369Exhibited: 'Hunt Exhibition Fry Collection', 1967, no. 17 (2)This work dates from c. 1820.

William Wallace Collett-Mason (1895-1957)A young Indian man in military uniform and a turban holding a bayonetPencil, black chalk and watercolour57 x 36 cm.; 22 ½ x 14 ¼ inchesThis work was most probably drawn in the Jhelum area of the Punjab, now in Pakistan, near the border with Kashmir. From May 1921, Jhelum hosted the 10th Battalion of the newly reorganised 1st Punjab Regiment. The subject may be a soldier or a member of the Balochistan police force. His turban is in the style of the "Kulla Wali Pagh" which includes a "Cone Cap", which was worn by Punjabi Muslims. Head and shoulders portrait in profile of Supharas Khan from Jhelum with a comb in his hairPencil and black chalk, with a sketch of his torso verso56.5 x 35.5 cm.; 22 ¼ x 14 inches The sitter Supharas Khan came from the Jhelum area of the Punjab, now in Pakistan, near the border with Kashmir.Head and shoulders portrait of Supharas Khan, wearing a shirt and with a comb in his hairInscribed l.l.: Subharas Khan. 26/Punjab. From jelhum, pencil, with a sketch l.l.56.5 x 35.5 cm.; 22 ¼ x 14 inches The sitter is drawn from the front. The Jhelum area of the Punjab is now in Pakistan, near the border with Kashmir. From May 1921, Jhelum hosted the 10th Battalion of the newly reorganised 1st Punjab Regiment.Head and shoulders portrait of Supharas Khan, wearing a shirt with a comb in his hairInscribed l.l: S, pencil56.5 x 35.5 cm.; 22 ¼ x 14 inches Portrait of a young Indian man wearing a turbanSigned l.r.: COLLET-MASON -, pencil 56.5 x 35.5 cm.; 22 ¼ x 14 inches ProvenanceBy descent in the family of the artist until 2025

KT693Elizabeth Gould (1804-1841)Maryland or northern bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus)Signed l.r.: Eliza Gould/1829, watercolour, inscribed in pencil l.r.: Maryland Quail and further indistinctly inscribed, on wove paper watermarked 181664 x 50.5 cm.; 25 ¼ x 19 ¾ inches Provenance Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker (1807-1886) of Hardwicke Court, Gloucestershire, promotor of reformatory schools and influential writer on crime and punishment; thence by family descent until 2025 Elizabeth Gould was one of the most important ornithological artists of the nineteenth century. Probably because much of her short life was spent in the shadow of her husband, Elizabeth Gould’s significant artistic and scientific contribution to the art of natural history has been overlooked traditionally. However, her reputation has recently been reassessed in Andrea Hart and Ann Datta’s monograph Birds of the World: The Art of Elizabeth Gould, published in 2023. The present watercolour is signed ‘Eliza Gould’ which was John Gould’s name for her and drawn when she was twenty-five. Her early work shows her talent as a draughtswoman, meticulous attention to detail and ability to capture the characteristics of a species most convincingly. The bobwhite quail, also known as the Virginia quail is a small but distinctive species native to much of North America, including the eastern coast of Mexico and the islands of the Caribbean. It has been in decline for the last half century due to habitat loss. In Maryland, they are found throughout the year in the eastern counties and less west of Chesapeake Bay. The bobwhite is a small bird, ranging from 9 to 11 inches in length and 13 to 15 inches in wingspan, weighing from 6 to 9 ounces each. While there are regional variations in appearance among males across its range, the females are similar in all locations. Females are generally dull brown with a buff-coloured throat, while males have a white throat and a distinctive brow stripe with a black border. Eastern bobwhites may have rufous-coloured breast feathers.

Oil on panel22 x 27 cm.; 8 ¾ x 10 5/8 inchesProvenanceThe artist’s widow, Lady Kelly; Michael Parkin Fine Art Ltd; From whom purchased by J.G. Cluff, private collection U.K. until 2022Born 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, inscribed and dated l.r.: Carl Haag London 14 Sept 1849, oil on paper35 x 25.3 cm.; 13 ½ x 10 inches, framed size 50 x 40 cm.; 19 3/4 x 15 3/4 inchesProvenancePeter Ward-Jackson (1916-2015)LiteratureW. Karbach and C. Allison, Carl Haag Victorian Court Painter and Travelling Adventurer between Orient and Occident, 2019, no. 85Having studied in Munich (where he worked as a miniaturist and book illustrator), Paris and Brussels the artist arrived in England in the spring of 1847. After spending that winter in Rome, he returned to London to study watercolour painting at the Royal Academy Schools. He almost lost a hand in an accidental explosion in December 1848. Haag’s first exhibited work at the Royal Academy in 1849 was entitled The Return from the Vineyards and the present work may have been made as a preparatory study.He became a member of the Old Water Colour Society in 1853. Haag travelled widely all over Europe and the Near East. He was popular with Royal and aristocratic patrons and spent the autumn of 1853 at Balmoral and the winter at Windsor.Peter Ward-Jackson was a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum and a leading authority on furniture, prints and drawings, particularly ornament designs. His publications became standard works in these fields such as his catalogue of the V&A’s Italian Drawings (in two volumes, 1979-80).

Pen and brown and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil, bears inscription and date22 x 36 cm.’ 8 ½ x 14 1/8 inchesProvenanceMaurice Dear, Southampton;Private collection, U.K., until 2025Rowlandson drew boating scenes such as this one on many occasions, this work probably dates from c. 1810-1820. The river is teeming with a variety of craft and passengers and the nearby pub doing a roaring trade.

Daniel Maclise , R.A. (1806-1870)A seated girl reading in a doorwayPencil13.5 x 8 cm.; 5 ¼ x 3 1/8 inchesProvenanceCovent Garden Gallery Ltd.Daniel Maclise was born in Cork to a family of Scottish descent. After a brief period working in a bank, Maclise’s passion for drawing led him to pursue a career in art which he studied at the Cork Society of Arts.He moved to London in 1826 to attend the Royal Academy where he excelled as a student, particularly in life drawing and history painting. He began exhibiting in the RA in 1829, was made an associate in 1830, and an academician in 1840.