Early 19th Century Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Watercolor on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Costume di Carafa" with a caption "Provincia di Calabria nel Regno di Napoli" in black ink on lower margin at the center. H...

Samuel Alken Coursing Scene Watercolour on green-grey wove paper Probably a contemporary copy of a rabbiting plate Bears signature to bottom left 25 x 42 cm Samuel Alken Jr. (178...

Interior of a house is a fine original drawing (China ink and watercolor on paper). Unsigned. This artwork could be attributed to Thomas Stothard. In ...

Watercolour on paper stuck on ivory colored cardboard, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Costume di Procida" with a caption "Provincia di Napoli" in black ink on lower margin. Partially hand-signed on lower-right margin. Representing a woman with baby...

Watercolour on paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Ballo de' Zampognari" (Dance of Pipers), hand-signed on lower-left margin. Very good conditions except for some ripples on the lower ma...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Fine watercolour representing a woman in traditional Italian costumes carrying some chickens. Excellent conditions, with some minor sta...

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

[CHINESE SCHOOL]. Chinese Craft on the Pearl River. Canton, circa 1810. Pencil, water colour and body colour drawings of craft, heightened with white on paper watermarked ‘J Whatm...

Country Woman is an original watercolor artwork realized in the XIX century by Agostino Aglio Good conditions except for tears along the margin and a little hole on higher right side. This precious modern artwork represents a woman, probably a peasant woman leaning against a little wall. Agostino Aglio (Cremona, 15 December 1777 - London, 30 January 1857) was an Italian painter, draftsman, engraver and lithographer. Son of Gaetano and Anna Maria Mondoni, he was sent to Milan in 1789 to study with Giocondo Albertolli., And then in Rome with the landscape artist Campovecchio. In 1798 he volunteered in the legion of the Cisalpine Republic and from 1799 to 1802 he traveled to Greece and Egypt with the architect William Wilkins, who invited him to England, where he settled in 1803; two years later he married Letitia Clarke. He decorated churches, theaters and villas, executed two portraits of Queen Victoria...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Wonderful watercolour both for the drawing and for the fineness of the colours representing a woman in typical Italian costumes of XIX ...

This is a piece of paper with Studies, made up of six different subjects drawn in China ink and watercolor. This original artwork was realized by an anonymous artist in the first hal...

This original artwork is a piece of paper with studies drawn on both sides: on the recto, horizontally, there is a landscape with trees in pencil and an inscription in ink partially ...

A delicate 19th Century watercolour of a motte-and-bailey castle. Signed and dated to the lower right. On paper laid to card.

Amazing watercolor on paper of the Costume di Carafagreci realized by the artist Michela De Vito in 1820 ca. Hand-titled "Costume di Carafagreci", with autograph notes in black ink ...

Hunter is an original Watercolor drawing on ivory colored stuck on paper, 1820 c.a. Not signed. This Artwork is attributed to Michela De Vito. Representing a man in typical Neapolit...

A fine watercolour study depicting a mother embracing her infant child. The artist's accomplished hand captures the fine drapery covery the woman, showing the folds of the material i...

Interior of a house is a fine original drawing (China ink and watercolor on paper). Unsigned. This artwork could be attributed to Thomas Stothard. In ...

An accomplished watercolour study depicting a woman on her knees in prayer. The piece is signed with Westall's monogram to the lower right. Presented in a part gilt frame. Label vers...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Fine watercolour representing a female figure in traditional Italian costumes. Hand-signed on lower margin at the center (the signature...

Watercolour on ivory colored stuck on paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-signed on lower-right and hand-titled "Costume di Tortorella", with autograph caption black ink "Provincia di Salerno" on...

The original artwork Monaca della Sapienza is a beautiful watercolour on ivory-colored paper made by the virtuous artist Michela De Vito in 1820 ca. Hand-titled "Monaca della Sapien...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Costume di Sorrento", with autograph caption black ink "Provincia di Napoli" on lower margin at the center. Representing ...

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...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1829. Representing a woman in typical Italian costumes of XIX century at work. Good conditions with some light stains. The year "1829" is written ...

Watercolour on paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Zampognari che fanno la Novena di Natale" (Bagpipers Playing During Christmas Time), hand-signed on lower-right margin. Very good condi...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Beautiful watercolour representing a monk. Hand-titled black ink on lower margin. Excellent conditions. Michela De Vito In the XIX century, Michela De Vito native of Abruzzi, worked in Naples and became a famous artist. She was maybe the daughter or sister of Camillo de Vito...

This beautiful artwork is a piece of paper with studies and notes. On one side, eleven subjects are drawn in ink, among which La Pietà in different poses, a female figure, and a prof...

Costume dell'Isola di Procida is an enchanting watercolour on ivory colored paper made by the artist Michela De Vito in 1820 ca., representing the Province of Naples. Hand-titled in...

Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Costume di Villa pianezza" with a caption "Provincia dell'Aquila nel Regno di Napoli" in black ink on lower margin at the ...

A charming watercolour in the manner of Francis Wheatley depicting a courting couple sat beneath a tree. The pair appear to be in the midst of an argument with the woman wiping tears...

A fine watercolour study depicting a man, horse and dog bringing a cart back from town on a winding path. The artist demonstrates a great ability to portray distance in the different...

A charming watercolour study of aworkhorse resting in a walled paddock. The cacti to the background suggests a Mediterranean environment. Faintly inscribed to the reverse of the wate...

A delightful watercolour scene depicting cattle grazing before a winding river. Signed to the lower right. Well presented in a slim gilt frame On paper.

A charming charcoal study depicting a woman in classical dress looking up with a distance, dreamy look. The artist captures the woman using delicate cross hating to highlight the con...

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...

Amorous Couple Watercolor on laid paper, c. 1810 Unsigned Provenance: Emile Wolf (1899-1996) The art collection of Emile Wolf was dispersed by Sotheby and Stair Galleries. Condition: Excellent 22K gold leaf finishes corner frame (see photo) “Mr. Wolf’s collection reflects a lifelong commitment to the arts. Although a mainstay of the Old Masters art scene in New York, Mr. Wolf’s collection spanned centuries and genres. He was an impassioned collector, and his Fifth Avenue apartment was filled with paintings and drawings that hung from floor to ceiling in every room. Space void of art was lined with an extensive library of art books that fueled his ardent collecting. Mr. Wolf took great joy in sharing this collection and his ideas with art historians, collectors, dealers and university students. The Wolf collection included masterworks from every influential and groundbreaking Impressionist and modern artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ranging from an outstanding grouping of works on paper by Picasso, Pissarro, and Cezanne to a Renoir oil...

A finely detailed and engaging mid 19th Century watercolour, confidently attributed to the English watercolourist, John Massey Wright. The painting shows a scene from Shakespeare...

William Richardson (British fl.1842-1877). Original watercolour depicting a full coach and guards outside Fountains Hall - Ripon, North Yorkshire. Signed and dated (1832) to the lowe...

A delightful early 19th century gouache depicting a rural scene with busy figures and livestock roaming freely. Very fine brushwork defines this artwork and the artist has paid great...

A rare early 19th-century watercolour landscape depicting an expansive view of Georgian Bath with the Royal Crescent & Abbey in the distance. In the foreground, a cart horse can be s...

Coppia di disegni che rientra pienamente nella tipologia degli studi detti "Accademia", che quindi erano la base della formazione degli allievi che frequentavano le Accademie di Bell...

A very fine early 19th Century Flemish School watercolour, showing a bearded man in a ragged tunic, with tangled hair. He gazes at the viewer with a patient eye as he holds his hat b...

Charming 19th century watercolor and ink on paper of a toucan on a tree in a bayscape with Latin description, signed by English naturalist artist William Goodall. Presented under gla...

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Pair of antique classical French salon drawings. Charcoal on paper. Illegibly signed. In giltwood frames, early 19th century. # grand tour

[CHINESE SCHOOL]. Chinese Craft on the Pearl River. Canton, circa 1810. A pencil, water colour and body colour drawing of craft, heightened with white on paper watermarked ‘J Whatm...

With an immediately clean and elegant impact, we already know that this drawing can be counted among the valuable range of Ademollian early graphic art for two reasons: the subject, ...

One of the characters in this scene is a mature man, kneeling with his head bowed and hands clasped near his chest in a gesture of supplication. His posture conveys a sense of humili...

Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the Artist Exhibited: I Don't Have Time to be Lonesome When I'm Painting: Emma Lane Payne 1857–1943 ... Cleveland Artists Foundation, June 22, 200...

Work on paper Stamp of the O. Vautier workshop Dimension of the passe partout frame 52.5 x 38 cm Otto Vautier is a renowned Swiss painter, born in 1863 i...

HENRY BARLOW CARTER (1795-1867) Construction of New London Bridge in June 1827. John Rennie, Esq., Engineer Signed and dated 1827 Sepia watercol...

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Attributed to Antony Vandyke Copley Fielding (1787 - 1855) Dinan Tour de l’Horloge (Dinan Clock Tower) Watercolour 28 x 21 cm A spirited watercolour of Dinan, Brittany. Dinan's famo...

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France circa 1820 Portrait of a gentleman Black chalk and pastel on paper 12 x 10 cm In its original mount, modern oak frame : 25 x 22.5 cm

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French School picture circa 1790-1810, the landscape depicts a group of fishermen and appear to be preparing for the journey out to sea, there are fishing boats with nets suggesting ...

Artist: Catherine Board (English, Active Early 19th Century) Title: "Swans" *Signed by Board lower right. It is also signed and dated by Board at lower right on verso Circa: 1820 Med...

Rare framed and matted antique Chinese painting of fish. Painted on pith paper with gouache in bold colors in a scholastic style. Having the expected ...

Drawing of Putti in the Clouds Jean-Jacques le Barbier l'Ainé (France, 1738-1826) Black pencil on paper Signed and dated lower left "Le Barbier L'ainé 1816" 10 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches ...