19th Century Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

A fine mid 19th century watercolour copy of Rembrandts original Tronie self portrait, depicting the young artist wearing a gorget and beret. Unsigned. The painting is well presented ...

This charming watercolour scene depicts a figure riding a horse with a lady by his side down to a large lake. In the distance a small town can be scene before mountains. Signed and d...

A quaint and charming portrait of a young brother and sister, who have just been blackberry picking. The boy carries a basket full of berries in the crook of his arm and a walking st...

This delightful watercolour by Cecil Jack Keats, depicts four horned cattle watering in a shallow river. Areas of the painting have been carefully heightened with body color by the a...

A heartwarming interior scene in watercolour, showing a young girl sitting on a stool in front of the kitchen stove, working with great concentration on ...

An fine watercolour study of a gentleman sat in his study writing a letter. The artist shows the man with a book carefully balanced on his lap and a selection of delicate inkwells on...

Hercules Brabazon Brabazon 1821-1906, was an English watercolour painter. He was born Hercules Brabazon Sharpe his father was Hercules Sharpe and his father in-law was Sir Anthony Br...

A fine oval watercolour with body colour highlights depicting a young woman in a rural landscape. Her face, hands, and feet are particularly finely painted with minute brush strokes....

An idyllic rural landscape depicting a mother having just carried her child across the stepping stones on the nearby river. Presented on a cream mount with watercolour detailing and ...

A fine portrait of a young woman with blonde hair. She is depicted wearing a delicate lace cap that is tied in a pretty bow. The artist has used touches of body colour to emphasize t...

A very fine mid 19th century watercolour study of two young boys ,dressed in fine gowns and Scottish tartan. Well presented in an cream oval mount and gilt effect frame. Unsigned. On...

A stunning large drawing, signed and dated 1880, by Cornelius Springer. It is house behind glass in a fine frame. A huge heroic Ruisdael tree empowers this picture. Beneath it, worke...

To see our many other views of Oxford and Cambridge, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this seller". John Anderson Bell (1809-1865) King’s College Cambridge Chapel Interior Signed and indistinctly dated Watercolour c. 1840 53x39cm Bell was born in Glasgow; his father was James Bell, advocate and his sister Jane...

Elizabeth Jenkins was born in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1841. By the early 1870s the artist was living in Yuba County, California. In 1873 she exhibited at the California State Fair.

A stunning 19th Century antique gouache on paper still life by an unknown artist. This beautiful work comes in its original antique frame with new archival mat presentation.

This accomplished watercolour study by well listed artist Joseph Moseley Barber. The work depicts a mother working on her needlework next to her sleeping baby in a bassinet. The arti...

France middle of 19th century (1843 ?) A set of 6 drawings Landscapes, trees, farms Brown ink and brown ink wash on paper Dimensions vary : Farms and buildings ( x 3) : 27 x 34 cm A...

Well presented in a simple black frame. Signed. On paper.

French School 19th Century Episode of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, a cantonment of soldiers during the siege of Paris Pen and brown ink on paper 15 x 23 cm Annotated on the lower...

18th to 19th Century "Art Presentation" Old Master Drawing Remarkable old master pen, ink and wash drawing of an art presentation Dimensions 14" wide x 8.5" high The lightly distr...

Stefano Donadoni (Somasca, BG, 1844 - Rome, 1911) View of the Capitol from the Forum Watercolor on paper, 27 x 38 cm Framed, 53 x 64 cm Signed lower right Stefano Donadoni was b...

An early 19th century comical ink sketch of a drunken tavern drinker waving at the innkeeper's wife. The charming illustration is immaculately presented in a wash-line mount and cont...

An exquisite late 19th-century French watercolour attributed to the artist Hector Caffieri. The artist has captured a (slightly portly) farmer who carr...

A landscape view in a mountain valley with a figure passing through a gate in the foreground. Presented glazed in a white and beige double mount and a gilt frame with bead courses to...

This charming scene depicts a young shepherd boy asleep at his post while his faithful hound stands guard. The dog looks into the distance spotting a figure on horseback approaching....

An idyllic watercolor depicting a winding mountainside road. Signed. Well presented in a wood frame with glazing and a blue mount board. On wove.

A truly beautiful portrait of an older woman taking a quiet moment to read a book at her bureau. She is clearly a woman of high standing shown in her richly textured clothes: satin ribbons, lace shawl and a velvet bodice and skirts. Her tight ringletted hair was a style popular in the 1880s but as she is an older woman this is probably a style she carried through her life, dating the painting around 1880 instead. This painting captures the serene and intensely personal act of solitary reading with gentle aplomb using a watercolour brush...

A fine late 19th-century watercolour with gouache detail by the artist Thomas William Morley (1859-1925). Here he has captured a group of flower sellers in a market square. Executed ...

A watercolour with gum arabic depicting figures in 16th-century dress walking up a shaded path. One of the figures gestures towards a fissure in the rock, possibly the entrance to a ...

A particularly fine watercolour by the listed British artist Frederick E Valter. The scene depicts a drover on his way to market with four horned cattle. The sky suggests early morni...

This humorous watercolour by Henry George Hine R.I (1811-1895), depicts an elderly gentleman returning home to his displeased wife. The gentleman looks jolly in his step before noticing his other half resting in frustration on the cottage fence. Even the little black terrier...

The River Barge Pen and ink on paper on laid paper, mounted in English drum mount , c. 1810 Unsigned Condition: Slight sun staining to sheet and mount in the window (see photo) Image/sheet size: 5 1/4 x 6 11/16 inches Sight: : 5-3/4 x 7-1/4" Frame: 13-3/8 x 14-3/8" Provenance: Colnaghi, London (see photo of label) David Cox (29 April 1783 – 7 June 1859) was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism. He is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters, and a major figure of the Golden age of English watercolour. Although most popularly known for his works in watercolour, he also painted over 300 works in oil towards the end of his career, now considered "one of the greatest, but least recognised, achievements of any British painter. His son, known as David Cox the Younger (1809-1885), was also a successful artist. Early life in Birmingham, 1783–1804 Cox's birthplace in Deritend, Birmingham, illustrated by Samuel Lines Cox was born on 29 April 1783 on Heath Mill Lane in Deritend, then an industrial suburb of Birmingham. His father was a blacksmith and whitesmith about whom little is known, except that he supplied components such as bayonets and barrels to the Birmingham gun trade. Cox's mother was the daughter of a farmer and miller from Small Heath to the east of Birmingham. Early biographers record that "she had had a better education than his father, and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character." Cox was initially expected to follow his father into the metal trade and take over his forge, but his lack of physical strength led his family to seek opportunities for him to develop his interest in art, which is said to have first become apparent when the young Cox started painting paper kites while recovering from a broken leg. By the late 18th century Birmingham had developed a network of private academies teaching drawing and painting, established to support the needs of the town's manufacturers of luxury metal goods, but also encouraging education in fine art, and nurturing the distinctive tradition of landscape art of the Birmingham School. Cox initially enrolled in the academy of Joseph Barber in Great Charles Street, where fellow students included the artist Charles Barber and the engraver William Radclyffe, both of whom would become important lifelong friends. At the age of about 15 Cox was apprenticed to the Birmingham painter Albert Fielder, who produced portrait miniatures and paintings for the tops of snuffboxes from his workshop at 10 Parade in the northwest of the town. Early biographers of Cox record that he left his apprenticeship after Fielder's suicide, with one reporting that Cox himself discovered his master's hanging body, but this is probably a myth as Fielder is recorded at his address in Parade as late as 1825. At some time during mid-1800 Cox was given work by William Macready the elder at the Birmingham Theatre, initially as an assistant grinding colours and preparing canvases for the scene painters, but from 1801 painting scenery himself and by 1802 leading his own team of assistants and being credited in plays' publicity. London, 1804–1814 In 1804 Cox was promised work by the theatre impresario Philip Astley and moved to London, taking lodgings in 16 Bridge Row, Lambeth. Although he was unable to get employment at Astley's Amphitheatre it is likely that he had already decided to try to establish himself as a professional artist, and apart from a few private commissions for painting scenery his focus over the next few years was to be on painting and exhibiting watercolours. While living in London, Cox married his landlord's daughter, Mary Agg and the couple moved to Dulwich in 1808. David Cox Travellers on a Path, pencil and brown wash. In 1805 he made his first of many trips to Wales, with Charles Barber, his earliest dated watercolours are from this year. Throughout his lifetime he made numerous sketching tours to the Home Counties, North Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Devon. Cox exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1805. His paintings never reached high prices, so he earned his living mainly as a drawing master. His first pupil, Colonel the Hon.H. Windsor (the future Earl of Plymouth) engaged him in 1808, Cox went on to acquire several other aristocratic and titled pupils. He also went on to write several books, including: Ackermanns' New Drawing Book (1809); A Series of Progressive Lessons (1811); Treatise on Landscape Painting (1813); and Progressive Lessons on Landscape (1816). The ninth and last edition of his series Progressive Lessons, was published in 1845. By 1810 he was elected President of the Associated Artists in Water Colour. In 1812, following the demise of the Associated Artists, he was elected as associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colour (the old Water Colour Society). He was elected a Member of the Society in 1813, and exhibited there every year (except 1815 and 1817) until his death. Hereford, 1814–1827 In the summer of 1813 Cox was appointed as the drawing master of the Royal Military College in Farnham, Surrey, but he resigned shortly afterwards, finding little sympathy with the atmosphere of a military institution. Soon after that he applied to a newspaper advertisement for a position as drawing master for Miss Crouchers' School for Young Ladies in Hereford and in Autumn 1814 moved to the town with his family. Cox taught at the school in Widemarsh Street until 1819, his substantial salary of £100 per year requiring only two-day's work per week, allowing time for painting and the taking of private pupils. Cox's reputation as both a painter and a teacher had been building over previous years, as indicated by his election as a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours and his inclusion in John Hassell's 1813 book Aqua Pictura, which claimed to present works by "all of the most approved water coloured draftsmen". The depression that accompanied the end of the Napoleonic Wars had caused a contraction in the art market, however, and by 1814 Cox had been very short of money, requiring a loan from one of his pupils to pay even for the move to Hereford. Despite its financial advantages and its proximity to the scenery of North Wales and the Wye Valley, the move to Hereford marked a retreat in terms of his career as a painter: he sent few works to the annual exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours during his first years away from London and not until 1823 would he again contribute more than 20 pictures. Between 1823 and 1826 he had Joseph Murray Ince as a pupil. London, 1827–1841 He made his first trip to the Continent, to Belgium and the Netherlands in 1826 and subsequently moved to London the following year. He exhibited for the first time with the Birmingham Society of Artists in 1829, and with the Liverpool Academy in 1831. In 1839, two of Cox's watercolours were bought from the Old Water Colour Society exhibition by the Marquis of Conynha for Queen Victoria. Birmingham, 1841–1859 Greenfield House in Harborne, Birmingham – where Cox lived from 1841 until his death in 1859 . In May 1840 Cox wrote to one of his Birmingham friends: "I am making preparations to sketch in oil, and also to paint, and it is my intention to spend most of my time in Birmingham for the purpose of practice". Cox had been considering a return to painting in oils since 1836 and in 1839 had taken lessons in oil painting from William James Müller, to whom he had been introduced by mutual friend George Arthur Fripp. Hostility between the Society of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Academy made it difficult for an artist to be recognised for work in both watercolour and oil in London, however, and it is likely that Cox would have preferred to explore this new medium in the more supportive environment of his home town. By the early 1840s his income from sales of his watercolours was sufficient to allow him to abandon his work as a drawing master, and in June 1841 he moved with his wife to Greenfield House in Harborne, then a village on Birmingham's south western outskirts. It was this move that would enable the higher levels of freedom and experimentation that were to characterise his later work. The elderly Cox pictured by Samuel Bellin in 1855. In Harborne, Cox established a steady routine – working in watercolour in the morning and oils in the afternoon. He would visit London every spring to attend the major exhibitions, followed by one or more sketching excursions, continuing the pattern that he had established in the 1830s. From 1844 these tours evolved into a yearly trip to Betws-y-Coed in North Wales to work outdoors in both oil and watercolour, gradually becoming the focus for an annual summer artists colony that continued until 1856 with Cox as its "presiding genius". Cox's experience of trying to exhibit his oils in London was short and unsuccessful: in 1842 he made his only submission to the Society of British Artists; one oil painting was exhibited at each of the British Institution and the Royal Academy in 1843; and two oil paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 – the last that would be exhibited in London during his lifetime. Cox showed regularly at the Birmingham Society of Arts and its successor, the Birmingham Society of Artists, becoming a member in 1842. Cox suffered a stroke on 12 June 1853 that temporarily paralysed him, and permanently affected his eyesight, memory and coordination. By 1857 however, his eyesight had deteriorated. An exhibition of his work was arranged in 1858 by the Conversazione Society Hampstead, and in 1859 a retrospective exhibition was held at the German Gallery Bond Street, London. Cox died several months later. He was buried in the churchyard of St Peters, Harborne, Birmingham, under a chestnut tree, alongside his wife Mary. Work Early work In the spring of 1811 Cox made a small number of notable works in oils during a visit to Hastings with his family. It is not known why he didn't continue working in this medium at the time, but the five known surviving examples were described in 1969 as "surely some of the most brilliant examples of the genre in England". Mature work Cox reached artistic maturity after his move to Hereford in 1814. Although only two major watercolours can confidently be traced to the period between Cox's arrival in the town and the end of the decade, both of these – Butcher's Row, Hereford of 1815 and Lugg Meadows, near Hereford of 1817 – mark advances on his earlier work. Later work Cox's later work produced after his move to Birmingham in 1841 was marked by simplification, abstraction and a stripping down of detail. His art of the period combined the breadth and weight characteristic of the earlier English watercolour school, together with a boldness and freedom of expression comparable to later impressionism. His concern with capturing the fleeting nature of weather, atmosphere and light was similar to that of John Constable, but Cox stood apart from the older painter's focus on capturing material detail, instead employing a high degree of generalisation and a focus on overall effect. The quest for character over precision in representing nature was an established characteristic of the Birmingham School of landscape artists with which Cox had been associated early in his life, and as early as 1810 Cox's work had been criticised for its "sketchiness of finish" and "cloudy confusion of objects", which were held to betray "the coarseness of scene-painting". During the 1840s and 1850s Cox took this "peculiar manner" to new extremes, incorporating the techniques of the sketch into his finished works to a far greater degree. Cox's watercolour technique of the 1840s was sufficiently different from his earlier methods to need explanation to his son in 1842, despite the fact that his son had been helping him teach and paint since 1827. The materials used for his later works in watercolour also differed from his earlier periods: he used black chalk instead of graphite pencil as his primary drawing medium, and the rough and absorbent "Scotch" wrapping paper for which he became well-known – both of these were related to his development of a rougher and freer style. Influence and legacy By the 1840s Cox, alongside Peter De Wint and Copley Fielding, had become recognised as one of the leading figures of the English landscape watercolour style of the first half of the 19th century. This judgement was complicated by reaction to the rougher and bolder style of Cox's later Birmingham work, which was widely ignored or condemned. While by this time De Wint and Fielding were essentially continuing in a long-established tradition, Cox was creating a new one. A group of young artists working in Cox's watercolour style emerged well before his death, including William Bennett, David Hall McKewan and Cox's son David Cox Jr. By 1850 Bennett in particular had become recognised as "perhaps the most distinguished among the landscape painters" for his Cox-like vigorous and decisive style. Such early followers concentrated on the example of Cox's more moderate earlier work and steered clear of what were then seen as the excesses of Cox's later years. During a period dominated by sleek and detailed picturesque landscape, however, they were still condemned by publications such as The Spectator as "the 'blottesque' school", and failed to establish themselves as a cohesive movement. John Ruskin in 1857 condemned the work of the Society of Painters in Water-colours as "a kind of potted art, of an agreeable flavour, suppliable and taxable as a patented commodity", excluding only the late work of Cox, about which he wrote "there is not any other landscape which comes near these works of David Cox in simplicity or seriousness". An 1881 book, A Biography of David Cox: With Remarks on His Works and Genius, was based on a manuscript by Cox's friend William Hall, edited and expanded by John Thackray Bunce, editor of the Birmingham Daily Post. There are two Blue Plaque memorials commemorating him at 116 Greenfield Road, Harborne, Birmingham, and at 34 Foxley Road, Kennington, London, SW9, where he lived from 1827. It can also be seen at the David Cox exhibition in Birmingham. His pupils included Birmingham architectural artist, Allen Edward...

Many of you clicking on this wonderful pen-and-ink are probably doing so because you know of Ellsworth Woodward, who with his brother William Woodward around the turn of the 20th century sparked an arts renaissance in the South, the arts and culture in general having been mostly moribund since the dispiriting defeat experienced in the Civil War. I won't bog you down with lots of detail here since all you have to do is Google his name to bring up a wealth of information about him. He is most famous for his leadership of the arts program at Newcomb College in New Orleans, and its famous Newcomb Pottery...

A thoroughly charming coastal scene in watercolour showing a downward view of a coastal town with a curved stone jetty on the shore. The artist has signe...

A still life depicting vines and grapes beside an urn. Well-presented glazed in a blue card mount with a gilt-effect border and a gilt-effect wooden frame. Signed and dated to the lo...

A dynamic watercolour by British artist John Keeley, depicting two woodland cottages side by side in a landscape. The watercolour has been signed by the artist to the lower right. We...

A very fine mid 19th century watercolour depicting a French town scene with cobbled streets and imposing cathedral tower in the background. Figures can be seen peacefully going about...

Landscape is a modern artwork realized in the 19th century Charcoal drawings. Good conditions 

To see our other public school pictures, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller." Meadows-Frost (possibly Sir John Meadows Frost [185...

A striking early 19th Century portrait in charcoal, showing an elegant young woman. Her dress and the style of her hair date this portrait around 1830. Her soft, sloping shoulders an...

A charming late 19th Century nautical scene, showing boats returning to shore as storm clouds gather over a small coastal town in the dista...

A softly painted coastal watercolour showing a beach, curving away along the shoreline into the hazy distance. Figures can be seen strolling along the sands. The artist has signed an...

A delightful study depicting two figures and a dog meeting on a coastal path. Marked with graphite grids. Unsigned. Presented in a gilt frame. On paper.

A delightful watercolour and gouache study of a milkmaid and her cow in a dark barn. On the left we can see a small still life with basket and bottles. Well presented in a white moun...

An atmospheric Welsh landscape, painted by 19th century artist Richard Bond (1808-1886). The watercolour depicts two mischievous characters swinging from ...

An original mid-19th-century watercolour by Charlotte Vawser (fl.1837-1875), depicting a landscape view at Virgil's Tomb, Naples. The painting is inscribed to the reverse with the ar...

A wonderfully atmospheric 19th century watercolour study of the Northumberland cost. Typically English weather hampers the efforts of some fishermen getting out to sea. Figures can b...

Francis Luis Mora was considered one of America's finest "sketchers". A collection of his Sketchbooks are at the Smithsonian and this work came out of one in the early 1990's from t...

A charming 19th Century watercolour depicting a Fisherman's wife wrapped in a tartan shawl holding a hand of cards. The artist captures the woman in profile, sporting a dotted head s...

A charming watercolour study of a sweeping coastline. In the foreground figures sit on the beach and look out to sea. Unsigned. Artist name inscribed verso. Presented in a gilt frame...

This exquisite watercolour depicts an engaging study of two blue tits, perched over a fragile nest of eggs. Barbed hawthorn and scent blossom ties the scene together with gentle touc...

This charming scene depicts a woman dreamily looking upon a resting musketeer who does not seem to recognise her presence. The artist show the man looking unto the distance, resting ...

A crisp and vibrant watercolor study of a riverside mill house, with two female workers conversing in a distant field. The rustic characteristics of the...

A delightful watercolour by landscape painter James Whaite (fl.1876-1896), depicting cockle pickers on a large North Wales beach. Signed to the lower left...

A delightful watercolour scene depicting a busy corner of Genoa Harbour on a sunny day. The large sails of the ships cast shadows over the scene, covering the men moving barrels and ...

A charming late 19th century watercolour of a pastoral landscape, with church spire viewable from distance fields. The artist has signed the scene to the ...

A very fine watercolour Jacobean interior scene showing an altar at which a crowd of people are partaking in a Eucharist. A priest blesses the wine and hands it to an elderly man who...

A charming landscape scene depicting a mill on the river's edge. The artist captures the scene in fine detail, with the delicate painting of the trees and foliage being very indicati...

An original mid-19th-century watercolour by Charlotte Vawser (fl.1837-1875), depicting figures leaving the woods at dusk. The painting is inscribed to the reverse with the artist nam...

A listed 19th century British artist and Barbizon School painter, Thomas W. Morley's Figure by the Sea captures the color, technique, softness of form and tonal qualities indicative ...