Sunday, November 29, 2009

Edward Burne-Jones - Study for a girl watering roses

"A figure in this pose was drawn by Burne-Jones in the mid-1860s, but the present drawing would seem to date from some years later. It is evidently a form of decoration, perhaps needlework, a field with which he became involved in the 1870s when he was asked to supply designs for the Royal School of Art Needlework, founded in 1872.
Alexander Ionides, the drawing's first owner, was the younger brother of Constantine Ionides of the Victoria and Albert Museum bequest, and himself a passionate collector. On his marriage in 1875 he took over his parents' house, 1 Holland Park, and proceeded to turn it into one of the great 'aesthetic' houses of the day, comparable to that created at the same period by F.R. Leyland at 49 Prince's Gate. Burne-Jones was one of the many artists and designers who contributed to it. He was responsible for four of the paintings, and may have made this sketch for some detail of the decoration."
- Catalogue notes



Study for a girl watering roses (and detail)
inscribed with colour notes (lower centre, in the margin)
pencil, fragmentary watermark
57/8 x 45/8 in. (15 x 11.7 cm.)

John Henry Dearle, 1860–1932 - Greenery





Greenery (and details)
English, 1892
Designed by: John Henry Dearle, 1860–1932
For: Morris & Co., English
Wool and mohair; tapestry weave


Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Victorian Web

Saturday, November 28, 2009

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) - Portrait of the artist's wife, Theodosia as Ophelia

"This painting dates from early in Grimshaw's career, when he was experimenting with many different types of subject: the moonlight scenes with which he made his name did not appear in his oeuvre until 1867. Grimshaw married his cousin Frances Theodosia Hubbarde, daughter of James Dibdin Hubbarde, editor of the Wakefield Journal, in 1858. In 1861 he resigned as clerk to the Great Northern Railway and devoted himself to painting, principally still lives of fruit and blossom on mossy banks. In 1862 he held his first known exhibition, and in 1863, the year this picture was painted, he first visited the Lake District, painting 'Nab Scar', a tour de force of Pre-Raphaelite technique, in 1864. Both in terms of technique and subject matter, the present painting also betrays his interest in the Pre-Raphaelites: 'Ophelia' (now in Tate Britain) was famously painted by Millais in 1852 and was widely reproduced in engraving." - Lot notes

Portrait of the artist's wife, Theodosia, as Ophelia
signed and dated 'J. A. Grimshaw 1863' (lower left)
oil on board
18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm.)


ArtMagick

Thomas Benjamin Kennington (British, 1856-1916)






A Polar Bears Tale

Victorian Paintings

1. Autumn
signed and dated 'T.B. Kennington 1900' (lower right)
oil on canvas
22 x 18 in. (56 x 46 cm.)
2. The Glory of Womanhood
signed and dated 'T.B.Kennington/4' (lower right)
oil on canvas
60¼ x 39¼ in. (153 x 99.6 cm.)
3. The Letter
signed and dated 'T.B.Kennington 06' (lower right)
oil on canvas
30 1/8 x 25 in. (76.5 x 63.5 cm.)
4. The Picture Book
signed 'T.B. Kennington' (lower right)
oil on board
15¾ x 20 in. (40 x 50.8 cm.)
5. At the kitchen table
signed and dated 'T.B. Kennington 12' (lower right) and numbered 'No.3' (on the reverse)
oil on board
14 x 10½ in. (35.6 x 26.6 cm.)

William Huggins (British, 1820-1884)

"Liverpool born William Huggins was perhaps one of the most adept, original and popular animal painters of the Victorian Age. His interest in animals led to him to study in local farmyards, following Wombwell’s Menagerie (a travelling animal circus) and spending hours in Chester zoo, particularly with the lions and tigers, which were to become important elements of his historical and literary paintings. He became an associate, then member, of the Liverpool Academy in the late 1840s, but resigned in 1856, perhaps as a result of his growing association with the early Pre-Raphaelites.
Huggins skill at capturing the spirit and character of his animal subjects was second perhaps only to Landseer. In his oils he often used a heavy white ground and transparent pigments, creating an effect of luminescence ... He was a man of great character, described on his gravestone near Chester as: ‘… a just and compassionate man, who would neither tread on a worm nor cringe to an emperor."
- Lot notes


1. Self portrait of the artist with his chickens
signed and dated 'W. Huggins/1858' (lower right)
oil on canvas
21 x 17 in. (53.3 x 43.2 cm.)
2. Chuck, Chuck, Chuck
signed and dated 1860
oil on board
11 x w: 15 in (27.9 x w: 38.1 cm)
3. In The Cool Shade
signed and dated 1870; bears labels verso, and exhibition label from the Walker Art Gallery, oil on board,
47 x 62cm (18 1/2 x 24 7/16 in).
4. The Stoic
signed and dated 'W Huggins/1852' (lower left)
oil on board
63 x 77 cm. (24 3/4 x 30 1/4 in.)
5. Study of a terrier, sitting before a Cantonese famille rose vase
signed and dated 'W.Huggins/1868' (lower right)
black, white and red chalk and watercolour, heightened with touches of white, on buff paper
21 x 17 in. (54.6 x 43.2 cm.)
6. Portrait of a Newfoundland (detail)
signed and dated 'W. Huggins/1869.' (upper left)
oil on board
15 x 12 1/2 in. (38 x 32 cm.)

Friday, November 27, 2009

Virgilio Tojetti (Italian, 1851-1901)

"Tojetti, who was born in Rome, studied with his father, the painter Domenico Tojetti, and in Paris with Gérôme and Bouguereau. In 1870 he immigrated to America and spent much of the rest of his life living and working in San Francisco and New York City. ..." - Fletcher/Copenhaver Fine Art






1. A cozy corner
signed and dated 'V. Tojetti 85' (lower right)
oil on canvas laid down on board
33 3/4 x 46 1/2in
2. A spring maiden
signed and dated 'V. Tojetti 91' (upper right)
oil on canvas
20 x 15 7/8 in. (50.8 x 40.3 cm.)
3. The muse of music with dancing putti
signed 'V. Tojetti' (lower right)
oil on canvas
21 1/4 x 14 1/4in (54 x 36.2cm)
4. Brown Haired Beauty
signed 'V. Tojetti/92'
oil on canvas
20 x 16in. (51 x 41.5cm.)

Michelangelo Meucci




1. Still life of summer fruit and vegetables
signed and inscribed 'M Meucci Firenze' (lower right)
oil on canvas, in a carved Florentine wood stained frame
33½ x 23¾ in. (85 x 60.3 cm.)
2. Songbirds in a tree
signed 'M. Meucci' (lower right)
oil on canvas, unframed
39½ x 15½ in. (100.3 x 39.3 cm.)
3. Tulips, roses, magnolias, lilies, pelagoniums, convulvulous, forget-me -nots and other summer flowers in a basket on a plinth in a forest (detail)
signed, inscribed and dated 'M. Meucci- Firenze -1875-' (lower right)
oil on canvas, oval
29½ x 24¼ in. (74.9 x 61.6 cm.)

Michelangelo Meucci (Italian, 1840-1890)





1. The anxious mother
signed, dated and inscribed 'M. Meucci -1885- Firenze' (lower right)
oil on canvas
33 1/4 x 23 3/4 in (85.7 x 59.4cm)

2. The cardinal's nest
signed, inscribed and dated '-M. Meucci-1889- -Firenze-' (lower right)
oil on board
13 1/8 x 10½ in. (33.5 x 26.7 cm.)

3. signed and inscribed and dated 'M Meucci Firenze/1871' (lower right)
oil on board
11 x 9 in. (28 x 22.8 cm.)

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Autumn - Connecticut








Courtesy johnjmurphyiii - Flickr

Abbott Graves - Roses





1. Still Life
2. In a Field of Flowers (detail)
3. Still life with roses

Abbott Fuller Graves (American, 1859-1936)

"Abbott Graves (1859-1936), born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, studied at MIT before going to Paris to work under Cormon, Laurens, and Gervais. He taught in Boston before opening his own art school there in 1891, but moved his school to Kennebunkport [Maine]. He frequently traveled from his New England homes to Paris, and from 1902-1905, worked as an illustrator for French magazines. Graves exhibited at the NAD (1892), PAFA (1895, 1913-4), Paris Salon (1899), Boston AC (1895-1909), and the Expo des Beaux Arts, Paris (1905). Best known for his floral still lifes, he also produced impressionistic landscapes and detailed genre paintings depicting scenes from rural life." - Cowan's Auctions, Inc


1. Near Kennebunkport
2. Poppies (detail)

Abbott Graves






1. New Orleans Courtyard Scene
2. The Gardener
3. In the garden
4. Woman with flower basket
5. Grandmother's Doorway

Edward Burne-Jones - a study















Recently sold at auction - Tennants Auctioneers

"Inscribed with a personal inscription To Sir Henry Austen Layard from EBJ, also dated July 1893, pencil drawing, 22cm by 17.5cm"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austen_Henry_Layard
(Both images are details ... click on the first one for a larger image.)