Thomas Rowlandson

The Boxing Match

Alfred H. Taylor The Experiment Watercolour, signed and dated 1838 Image size: 9 ½ x 8 inches

Anna Zinkeisen 1901-1976 A Boxing Tournment Oil on canvas, signed lower right Image size: 29 x 36.5 inches (73 x 93 cm) Original hand made frame A Boxing Tournament is a vivid and impactful snapshot of a professional boxing match from the late 1920s/1930s. It depicts the Len Harvey vs. ‘Kid’ Nitram fight held at the Royal Albert Hall on 19th January 1928, which Zinkeisen went to watch. The umpire of this match was the well-known Sam Russell. Here, Russell is seen wearing a dinner jacket as well as a shirt - an indication that this was a match in a professional tournament. Both Len Harvey and 'Kid' Nitram were esteemed boxers. Harvey boxed at every weight division available at the time, from flyweight to heavyweight and became the light-heavyweight and heavyweight champion of the British Empire. During the Second World War Harvey joined the Royal Air Force as an officer. Anna enjoyed noticeable publicity from the painting at the time. She appeared in photographs, alongside her sketches for the painting, in numerous newspapers including The Daily Mail (31st January 1928) and The Sketch (8th February 1928). This painting is featured in Highly Desirable: The Zinkeisen Sisters & Their Legacy by Philip Kellaway, page 178 (Leiston Press, 2008). The Artist Anna Zinkeisen was born at Kilcreggan, Dumbartonshire on 29 August 1901, the daughter of Victor Zinkeisen, a timber merchant, and his wife Clare. In 1901 the family moved to Middlesex. Anna and her sister Doris attended Harrow School of Art before they both won scholarships to the Royal Academy Schools, where Anna studied sculpture from 1916-1921, winning several medals. She received a commission for some plaques from the Wedgwood company and although her designs were awarded a silver medal at the Exposition des Art Decoratifs in Paris in 1925, she decided to specialise in portrait painting and mural work. In 1935, Anna and her sister Doris Zinkeisen were commissioned by John Brown & Co. (Shipbuilders of Clydebank) to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill of the famous ocean liner the RMS Queen Mary. Their work can still be seen on the ship, now permanently moored in Long Beach, California. They also painted murals for the Queen Elizabeth. In 1941, during World War II, the Zinkeisen sisters were both employed as war artists for the North West Europe Commission of the Joint War Organisation of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John...

Watercolour and ink on paper, signed bottom right Image size: 7 x 10 1/2 inches (17.75 x 26.5 cm) Gilt frame An original artwork by an early 20th Century French illustrator, this is...

Ink on lined paper Image size: 3 x 2 3/4 inches (8 x 7 cm) Hand made frame Sam Rabin Samuel (Sam) Rabin, originally Samuel Rabinovitch, was an English sculptor, artist, teacher, singer, wrestler and Olympic bronze medallist. Rabin, who was Jewish, was born Samuel Rabinovitch on 20 June 1903 at Dewhurst Street, Cheetham, North Manchester. His parents were both Russian Jewish exiles from Vitebsk (now in Belarus). During his childhood, the family moved to Salford where Rabin grew up and where his parents encouraged his talent for drawing. In 1914 Rabin won a scholarship to the Manchester Municipal School of Art making him, at the age of 11, the youngest pupil ever to attend the college. There he was taught drawing by French artist Adolphe Valette. In 1921 he moved to the Slade School of Fine Art in London where he continued his studies under Henry Tonks until 1924. After the Slade, Rabin studied in Paris where he met and was greatly impressed and influenced by sculptor Charles Despiau. Rabin's own sculpture from this time is little known as he was a perfectionist and destroyed work that he considered unsatisfactory. In 1928, working under his full surname, he was commissioned by architect Charles Holden to carve West Wind, one of eight personifications of the four winds for the headquarters of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London at 55 Broadway. The sculpture was partly completed in-situ on the building. In 1930, he produced his only other public sculptures; two decorative winged masks, The Past and The Future, for the Daily Telegraph building in Fleet Street. These were carved on the building directly from the scaffold. Both commissions were well received at the time, but Rabin was unable to make a living as a sculptor and turned to another career – wrestling, for which he abbreviated his surname. Rabin was physically strong and had boxed and wrestled as an amateur to fund his art. He won a bronze medal in the middleweight division of the free-style wrestling at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. Rabin turned professional in 1932 and fought as Rabin the Cat and Sam Radnor the Heb. Alexander Korda cast him as a wrestler in The Private Life of Henry VIII in 1933 and as Mendoza, a Jewish prize-fighter, in The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1934. Despite lacking any formal musical training, Rabin was a talented baritone and worked professionally during the 1940s singing with Stars in Battledress and sang operatic arias with the army's Classical Music Group. In 1946 he auditioned for La Scala's conductor, Victor de Sabata. In 1949, Rabin began teaching drawing at Goldsmith's College of Art in New Cross, London. His disciplined teaching style including the production of demonstration works, followed that of his own teacher, Valette. His students included Mary Quant, Bridget Riley and Tom Keating...

Etching and aquatint realized by Thomas Rowlandson in 1817. Plate from "The Dance of Life" by William Combe. Very good condition. Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) was an english artis...

Etching and aquatint realized by Thomas Rowlandson in 1817. Plate from "The Dance of Life" by William Combe. Very good condition. Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) was an english artis...

Etching and aquatint realized by Thomas Rowlandson in 1817. Plate from "The Dance of Life" by William Combe. Very good condition. Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) was an english artis...

A humorous late Georgian cartoon, showing the chaotic start to a horse race as one of the horses goes out of control and runs into the spectators, sending them fleeing. The scene app...