Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

This late 19th-century British portrait study depicts a lady wearing a black hat with a veil. It’s an intriguing little mystery. With an enigmatic expression, she peers back across ...

A delicate portrait of a gentleman in a red velvet waistcoat smoking a cigar. The artist has captured his striking face and bright blue eyes with fine detail. Well presented in an or...

A delicate portrait of a young watercress seller holding a wicker basket of cress. These street sellers were common during the 18th and 19th centuries and would sell to workers early...

A charming mid 19th century study of a mother holding her child while she collects water from a well. The woman stands barefoot on the rocks b...

A subtle watercolour portrait of a peasant woman in profile. Presented in a reeded gilt frame with wash-line mount. Signed and dated, 1989. On paper.

A charming watercolour portrait of a broad shouldered fisherman, striding along a sandy shoreline in black boots, buckled shorts and a bold red blouse. Finely mounted in a contempora...

A charming 19th century watercolour, showing an older sister, holding her younger sister in her arms as the two embrace with soft smiles. The artist has signed and dated to the lower...

A delicate watercolour study of a young girl named to the reverse as Mary Elizabeth Price (1858-1917). She carries a selection of flowers in her apron and wears a pretty pale pink dr...

A detailed graphite and watercolour portrait of a 19th century gentleman, seated at a writing desk with an open book and inkwell. The gentleman can be seen wearing a black tailored s...

This painting depicts a man standing confidently with a shovel. This is an American School, likely Hudson River School drawing from the 1860s or 1870s. This 19th century unsigned painting...

Signed upper left, 'C. J. Turrell' for Charles James Turrell (British-American, 1845-1932) and dated 1876. Framed dimensions: 12 x 1 x 10 inches Charles James Turrell was one of the most talented miniaturists of his age. Born in London, he studied under a Mr. Sargeant, perhaps Frederick Sargeant who exhibited at the Royal Academy, before visiting the United States in 1867 where he painted miniatures at the studio of photographer Napoleon Sarony. During this time, Turrell had distinguished sitters including members of the Vanderbilt, Whitney, and Morgan families. While in America, Turrell married and would go on to maintain successful careers in both New York and London where, in 1869, he opened a studio on Bond Street. Turrell exhibited widely and with success including annually at the Royal Academy (1873-1904), the Society of Miniaturists (1873 – 1932), the Brooklyn Art Association (1868), the Pennsylvania Academy of Art (1901) and at the Paris Salons. His sitters included Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and Queen Alexandra, when she was Princess of Wales (1884). In 1890, he was appointed official miniature painter to Queen Victoria. Turrell's work is held in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace as well as in the permanent collections of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, London's Victoria & Albert Museum and the Mount Vernon Collection in Washington D.C., among others. Reference: E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 13, page 863; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 3, page 3354; Mallett’s Index of Artists, Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, Peter Smith: New York 1948 Edition, R.R. Bowker Company 1935, page 444; The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, J. Johnson and A. Greutzner, 1980 Edition, Antique Collectors’ Club 1976, page 511; Dictionary of British Miniature...

A charming watercolour portrait depicting a Victorian woman seated in an armchair. She wears a lace bonnet that is clasped under the chin and a long black dress with puffed sleeves. ...

Graphite on paper Image size: 5 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches (14 x 52 cm) Framed This sketch is a portrait of Thomas Gotch is by his lifelong friend and confidante, Jane Ross, whom he met at...

A very fine 19th-century watercolour study of a pretty young woman harvesting hay. In her hands, she holds a large scythe and a bundle of hay. Well presented in an ornate gilt effect...

Watercolour on paper, signed and dated 1884 top left Image size: 11 x 8 3/4 inches (28 x 22.25 cm) Original gilt frame This is a late 19th century portrait of a girl in profile, wea...

Black chalk, white smudge and highlights, on paper Image size: 10 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches (27.25 x 14.5 cm) A half-length portrait of a young Duke wearing a long wig with his head turned...

Portrait is a Pen Drawing realized by Mino Maccari (1924-1989) in 1928. Hand-signed on the lower margin. Good condition on a little paper. Mino Maccari (Siena, 1924-Rome, June 16...

Emil Faesch (1865 Basel - 1915 Basel). Sketch of a head. Charcoal on painting cardboard, 60 x 47.5 cm (folio size), signed and dated at lower right "E. Faesch. 1888.". Minor browning. - Carved in stone - About the artwork The life-size head has an immensely present presence. This effect is due to the fact that Faesch took his cue from academic classical...

Adolph Eduard Otto von Faber du Faur (1828 Ludwigsburg - 1901 Munich). Man sitting in the studio. Watercolour painting, 43 x 27 cm (visible size), 73 x 53 cm (frame), monogrammed at lower right, estate stamp. Upper right corner neatly repaired, small tear in the wall to the left of the sitter. - Thinking about art - About the artwork The sitter, an elderly man, is seated in a studio on a pedestal reminiscent of an academy hall. The earthy, dark tones give the scene a weighty quality. The lightest tones are found in the incarnate parts of the figure, which do not stand out from the other colours of the picture, but are linked to them. As a result, the sitter's face is both part of and the highlight of the colour references in the picture. The colour of the sitter's skin is reflected in his pink coat, while his white-grey hair matches the colour of the wall next to him. This almost monochrome wall surface, in turn, is connected across the portrait to the framed picture standing on the floor, which seems to have been erased by this correspondence with the empty wall surface. Through the palette, which is positioned directly behind the sitter's head, the reference to painting, which is already given by the studio space, is explicitly linked to the sitter, who thus seems to be contemplating the question of the meaning of art. This raises the question of whether Faber Du Faur, who had become lonely in his old age, might have painted a self-portrait here in his later years. In addition to the studio setting, the sitter's explicit reference to the palette and the fact that the picture was part of his estate, the only summary elaboration of the body suggests a self-portrait, while the representation of the face is concretised with the wide-open eyes typical of a self-portrait. This concentration on the face gives the impression of the artist's melancholy introspection, captured by the palette and related to the meaning of painting, whose dark character is reinforced by the concealment of the palette hanging on the right of the picture in the light tones so characteristic of Faber Du Faur. In the course of this resignation, Faber du Faur advises his son Hans, who has also become a painter: "Promise me one thing: never move to Munich, they'll kill you here!" Whoever the sitter may be, the references to painting make the portrait a resigned self-contemplation by Faber Du Faur, focused on art. About the artist After leaving school, Otto Faber du Faur entered the service of the Württemberg army, at the same time cultivating his artistic talent. In 1851, on the recommendation of his father Christian Wilhelm, who was himself a battle painter, he spent six months in Munich as an apprentice to Alexander von Kotzebue. In 1852 he was granted a year's leave of absence from military service to study battle painting in the studio of Adolphe Yvon...

Sketchbook Page with Figures and Anatomical Details in Pencil on Paper Drawings of a man at a desk and other figurative sections by an unknown artist (19th Century). On the left sid...

Hermann Prell (1854 Leipzig - 1922 Dresden-Loschwitz). Half-length portrait of a Pharisee, 1885. Sketch for the right-hand figure in the painting Judas Iscariot, 1886. Pencil drawing heightened with opaque white and black chalk on beige-grey wove paper (papier vélin), 34 x 27.8 cm (visible size), 52 x 45 cm (mount), signed, dated and inscribed "H. PRELL 1885 zu 'Judas'". Minor browning, collection stamp on the reverse. - In the shadow of betrayal - About the artwork This painting is the sketch for the head of the Pharisee offering the coins to Judas in one of Herrmann Prell's major works, the painting Betrayal of Judas, completed in 1886. The painting belongs to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and is illustrated in Adolf Rosenberg: Prell, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1901, p. 21 (Fig. 19). It is especially highlighted in Thieme-Becker (vol. 27, p. 376). Hermann Prell, Betrayal of Judas, 1886 The monumental head, which fills the picture and is distinguished by its ornamented robe, is almost a lost profile, which in the executed painting is justified by the Pharisee's turning towards Judas. Despite the fact that the sitter withdraws from the viewer by turning away, it was necessary to artistically elaborate the motivation for the purchase of one of Christ's disciples, which is why the drawing focuses on the expression of the face, while the 'accessories' are treated in a more summary manner. In characterising the face, Hermann Prell performs a balancing act: since the Pharisee, despite his destructive actions, is an actor in the history of salvation, the head must show a dignity appropriate to the event, but at the same time the physiognomy must also bear witness to the scheming attitude that led to the betrayal. To solve this dilemma, Prell draws on the traditional depictions of the heads of the apostles, shading the face to indicate the obdurate darkness of the spirit and moving the base of the nose slightly upwards while the mouth falls away, thus giving a physiognomic expression to the motivation of the action. The fatal drama of the betrayal is expressed in the monumentalisation of the head and in the thunderous white highlights that contrast with the darkness of the chalk. As a study, considered by the artist to be a work in itself, this drawing reveals the pictorial problems and brainstorming of monumental painting. About the artist In 1872 Prell, who was one of the most important exponents of monumental painting of his time, began studying painting with Theodor Grosse at the Dresden Academy of Art and continued with Carl Gussow at the Berlin Academy in 1876. Hans von Marées taught him in Rome in 1878. More influential on his work, however, were Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger, with whom Prell had been friends since his student days and with whom he worked together on several occasions. Prell's first major work, which established his reputation as a monumental painter, were the frescoes in the banqueting hall of the Architektenhaus in Berlin in 1881/82, commissioned by the state and depicting the different periods of architecture. Prell then went to Italy for two years to study fresco painting. Other major commissions followed. These included monumental frescoes in the town halls of Worms (1884), Hildesheim (1882-92), Gdansk (1895) and Dresden, the staircase of the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau (1893/94), the throne room of the German Embassy in Rome (1896-99) and the staircase of the Albertinum in Dresden (1900-1904). From 1886 Prell taught at the academy of arts in Berlin and in 1892 he was appointed professor at the academy of arts in Dresden. His students included Osmar Schindler and Hans Unger...

Adam and Eve is a drawing realized in 1849 and attributed to the painter and draughtsman Luigi Sabatelli (1772-1850). Applied on cardboard: 35 x 25 cm Hand-signed on the lower and ...

A delicate portrait miniature of a Victorian girl wearing a puffed blouse and beaded red necklace. The girl stands with her back to the viewer, peering ...

A charming graphite study in the delicate manner. The woman wears a puffed sleeved and ringlets fall to the side of her face in a typical Victorian fashion. Unsigned. Presented in a ...

A charming pastel study of a 17th Century noble child seated on a red chair next we an earn. He looks down at a hat on the floor and wears a royal blue uniform. Signed faintly with i...

A delicate watercolour study of a young child with angelic features. Well presented in a gilt effect frame. Unsigned. On watercolour paper.

FRANK LEWIS EMANUEL (1865-1948) Portrait of Archibald Hartrick Signed, inscribed and dated l.l.: A S HARTRICK (artist) by F L EMANUEL 1884 Black chalk heightened with white chalk on blue paper...

A striking English School pastel portrait circa 1840. The sitter is a beautiful young woman with sharp features and blue eyes. She is wearing an elegant blue dress in a style fashionable in the 1840s. Her hair is similarly styled in line with the fashions of the era. The woman is wearing a dark brown fur stole...

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...

This “Academia” (pencil and white lead on paper, 48 x 32,5 cm) is the kind of study from live that was the most frequent way of training in Arts Academies since the 18th century. The...

A fine 19th Century pastel portrait, showing a pretty, smiling young woman, proudly holding a tiny white kitten. The subject and soft rendering of ...

A fine and delicately detailed 19th Century watercolour copy of the self portrait by Rembrandt from 1634. The artist has signed to the left edge and the painting has been presented i...

A finely painted watercolour portrait of an old man in green hat and yellow cloak, drinking from a flagon. Signed G. Rushton to the lower right. Presented in a quality gilt effect fr...

A fine watercolour copy of the famous original oil self portrait by Peter Paul Rubens, painted in 1623. The painting is unsigned and presented in a fine 19th Century gilt frame with ...

A fine and delicately detailed 19th Century watercolour showing two children in Georgian attire. The artist has signed to the left edge and the painting has been presented in a 19th ...

Late 19th century drawing on paper of a French marine scene by noted French artist Georges Ricard-Cordingley. Carrying the atelier stamp to the bottom left and with full annotation and certification to the back of the paper. Provenance: This drawing came from the estate of the artist's daughter who had acquired it directly from her father. It is from his earliest period of drawing when his talents were first being recognised. A charming drawing capturing the scene of a paquebot, a small passenger ship, leaving the dock at Boulogne sur Mer. Cordingley has captured the majesty of the scene, the rolling waves, the force of nature. Georges Ricard was born on January 30, 1873 in Lyon, son of Prosper Louis Ricard and Georgina Marie Cordingley. He spent part of his childhood in Lyon and Boulogne-sur-Mer. He displayed early gifts for drawing. He lost his father in 1885. He began his training around 1887, becoming a pupil of Jean-Charles Cazin, a landscape painter from Pas-de-Calais and the Côte d'Opale. He then joined the School of Fine Arts in Lyon and remained there from 1888 to 1889. He moved to Paris in 1890, where he studied at the Académie Julian as a pupil of Benjamin Constant, Louis Martinet and Jules Lefebvre. He lost his mother around 1892, went to England to his maternal family and added his mother's name to his name. He embarked for the North Sea with the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen and carried out his first studies. In 1894, he met with great success at the court of Queen Victoria. He embarked a second time, in 1895, still for the North Sea and produced numerous studies of waves of clouds, of the port and of portraits of fishermen...

A charming portrait depicting an elegant young woman in a garden setting. She holds a letter out in the sunlight, looking intently at the words. Unsigned. Well presented in a gilt fr...

A fine 19th century watercolour of a noble cavalier walking the cloisters at court. The artist has caught the gallant figure dressed in red, clutching a sword in his left hand. Indis...

A fine watercolour portrait depicting two young sisters in matching gowns. The artist captures the children in delicate watercolour brush strokes show...

A wonderful 19th century watercolour by Italian artist Achille Buzzi, depicting a woman resting on a rocky wall. The woman has been captured in delicate detail, staring into the dist...

The Maiden is an original Drawing in pencil realized in the 19th Century by Paul Huet (1803-1869). With another drawing on the rear. In good condition. The artwork is depicted sk...

An early example from pioneering Female Cartoonist/ Illustrator Edwina Dumm, who draws a comic strip from her long-running cartoon series Tippie which lasted for almost five decades. Signed and dated Edwina, 9-25, matted but unframed. Frances Edwina Dumm (1893 – April 28, 1990) was a writer-artist who drew the comic strip Cap Stubbs and Tippie for nearly five decades; she is also notable as America's first full-time female editorial cartoonist. She used her middle name for the signature on her comic strip, signed simply Edwina. Biography One of the earliest female syndicated cartoonists, Dumm was born in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and lived in Marion and Washington Courthouse, Ohio throughout her youth before the family settled down in Columbus.[1] Her mother was Anna Gilmore Dennis, and her father, Frank Edwin Dumm, was an actor-playwright turned newspaperman. Dumm's paternal grandfather, Robert D. Dumm, owned a newspaper in Upper Sandusky which Frank Dumm later inherited. Her brother, Robert Dennis Dumm, was a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch, and art editor for Cole Publishing Company's Farm & Fireside magazine. In 1911, she graduated from Central High School in Columbus, Ohio, and then took the Cleveland-based Landon School of Illustration and Cartooning correspondence course. Her name was later featured in Landon's advertisements. While enrolled in the correspondence course, she also took a business course and worked as a stenographer at the Columbus Board of Education. In 1915, Dumm was hired by the short-lived Republican newspaper, the Columbus Monitor, to be a full-time cartoonist.[2] Her first cartoon was published on August 7, 1915, in the debut issue of the paper. During her years at the Monitor she provided a variety of features including a comic strip called The Meanderings of Minnie about a young tomboy girl and her dog, Lillie Jane, and a full-page editorial cartoon feature, Spot-Light Sketches[3]. She drew editorial cartoons for the Monitor from its first edition (August 7, 1915) until the paper folded (July 1917). In the Monitor, her Spot-Light Sketches was a full-page feature of editorial cartoons, and some of these promoted women's issues. Elisabeth Israels Perry, in the introduction to Alice Sheppard's Cartooning for Suffrage (1994), wrote that artists such as Blanche Ames Ames, Lou Rogers and Edwina Dumm produced: ...a visual rhetoric that helped create a climate more favorable to change in America's gender relations... By the close of the suffrage campaign, women's art reflected the new values of feminism, broadened its targets, and attempted to restate the significance of the movement.[4] After the Monitor folded, Dumm moved to New York City, where she continued her art studies at the Art Students League. She was hired by the George Matthew Adams Service[5] to create Cap Stubbs and Tippie, a family strip following the lives of a boy Cap, his dog Tippie, their family, and neighbors. Cap's grandmother, Sara Bailey, is prominently featured, and may have been based on Dumm's own grandmother, Sarah Jane Henderson, who lived with their family. The strip was strongly influenced by Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as Dumm’s favorite comic, Buster Brown by Richard F. Outcault. Dumm worked very fast; according to comics historian Martin Sheridan, she could pencil a daily strip in an hour.[6] Her love of dogs is evident in her strips as well as her illustrations for books and magazines, such as Sinbad, her weekly dog page which ran in both Life and the London Tatler. She illustrated Alexander Woollcott's Two Gentlemen and a Lady. For Sonnets from the Pekinese and Other Doggerel (Macmillan, 1936) by Burges Johnson (1877–1963), she illustrated "Losted" and other poems. From the 1931 through the 1960s, she drew another dog for the newspaper feature Alec the Great, in which she illustrated verses written by her brother, Robert Dennis Dumm. Their collaboration was published as a book in 1946. In the late 1940s, she drew the covers for sheet music by her friend and neighbor, Helen Thomas, who did both music and lyrics. During the 1940s, she also contributed Tippie features to various comic books including All-American Comics and Dell Comics. In 1950, Dumm, Hilda Terry, and Barbara Shermund...

This fine portrait by British artist William Moore (1790-1851) depicts a young man holding a book. He’s wearing a white shirt, black necktie, waistcoat and unbuttoned frock coat. During the...

This exquisite portrait by British artist William Moore (1790-1851) depicts a young lady wearing a beautiful white dress with gigot sleeves. It’s a gentl...

Portraits is a drawing in China ink on paper realized in the late 19th Century by Félix-Joseph Barrias. Monogrammed on the lower center. Included a Passepartout: 33 x 50 cm Good c...

This exquisite portrait by British artist William Moore (1790-1851) depicts a young lady wearing a beautiful white dress with gigot sleeves. It’s a gentl...

Pioneering Woman Illustrator Margery Stocking Hart draws a pen-and-ink story depicting a round table of predators encircling a vulnerable bunny rabbit. ...

Daniel Saint was a prominent French miniaturist who lived between 1778 and 1847. Born in Paris, Saint was the son of a jeweler and initially began his career as an apprentice in his father's workshop. However, he soon discovered his passion for painting and turned his attention to miniatures, which were highly popular in 18th and 19th-century Europe. Saint was a highly skilled artist and quickly gained a reputation for his miniature portraits, which were characterized by their delicate detail and fine brushwork. His works often featured prominent figures from French society, including members of the royal family and high-ranking officials. He also painted portraits of wealthy patrons, many of whom commissioned him to create highly personalized works. Saint's style was highly influenced by the neoclassical movement, which emphasized clarity, simplicity, and rationality. He often used a limited color palette, focusing on soft pastels and muted tones, which helped to accentuate the delicate features of his subjects. His compositions were typically centered around the face, with little background or context to distract from the subject. Despite his success as a miniaturist, Saint was not immune to the changing tastes of the art world. In the mid-19th century, photography began to gain popularity, and many artists who specialized in portraiture found themselves struggling to compete with the speed and accuracy of this new medium. However, Saint continued to work and develop his craft, adapting his style to the changing tastes of his clients and experimenting with new techniques and materials. In addition to his work as a miniaturist, Saint was also a skilled draftsman and created a number of highly detailed and intricate drawings and sketches. He was also known for his use of unconventional materials, such as hair, which he would incorporate into his miniature portraits to add texture and depth. Today, Saint's works are highly prized by collectors and are held in museums and private collections around the world. His legacy as a master of miniature portraiture lives on, and his influence can still be seen in the work of contemporary artists who specialize in this unique and challenging medium. More information: Artist: Daniel Saint (1778-1847) France Title: Portrait of a French Gentleman...

Jean Launois (1898-1942) Opium smokers, Indochina Stamp of the artit's estate on the lower right Black ink on paper 22.5 x 30.5 cm Framed : 38 x 46 cm This beautiful drawing, a fine example of Jean Launois' particular art, dates from the artist's stay in Indochina, from which he brought a group of works. An exhibition devoted to this Indochinese period of the artist's production was held at the Musée de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Sables d'Olonne in 1998. About the artist : Of Vendée origin, Jean Launois very quickly showed a sure talent for drawing and was encouraged in this by his parents. He trained with his fellow Vendeans Charles Milcendeau and Auguste Lepère and then entered the Académie Jullian in Paris. Enrolled in the First World War in 1916, he continued to draw at the front, and produced numerous portraits of soldiers...

Believing that the departed continue to hold influence over the lives of the living, many Chinese households honor their ancestors in private family rituals, invoking their spirits for long life, health, and prosperity. Commemorative portraits, which came into vogue in the late Ming and Qing dynasties, were commissioned specifically for ancestor worship and were believed to house the spirits of the deceased. When properly cared for, one's ancestors were believed to be a powerful source of honor, protection, and good luck. This pair of ancestor portraits was hand-painted in the mid-19th century and beautifully depicts a Qing-dynasty couple. While some ancestral portraits offer a more stylized representation of one's ancestors, this particular pair is painted with incredible realism and life-like expressions. Rather than depict the pair in a regal hall wearing elaborate finery, the couple is shown in a quiet home environment, seated at either end of a square tea table. Their surroundings are minimal, practically undecorated, and they wear simple, matching blue silk robes...

An exquisite watercolour study depicting a regency woman in her finery sat in an interior. In her hand she holds a quill to the letter she is writing but stares into the distance, lo...

This fine Victorian portrait depicts a rosy cheeked and red lipped girl, sat wearing a black buttoned down frock with delicate lace collar. The artist has man...

Original Vintage 1920's Ink and Watercolor Fashion Illustration by listed New England artist Harriette (Nutting) Cooper (1901 - 2002). The illustration depicts a lovely young flappe...

A fine watercolour portrait painted in the Grand Manner depicting a well-dressed Spanish nobleman in 17th century dress. Well presented in a simple ...

This small drawing shaped as a lunette (pencil on paper, 13 x 19 cm) represents Saint-Ouen Abbey in Rouen, Normandie, as it's reported on pencil on the bottom left corner. We can des...

A full length and highly detailed watercolour portrait of a child wearing traditional tartan. Signed and dated (1855) to the lower left. Finely presented in a slim gilt frame with a ...

This beautiful mid-19th-century group portrait by British artist Frederick Cruickshank (1800-1868) depicts a father, mother and their two daughters within an interior setting. It’s a...

A charming study of a Cavalier seating on street side steps with his head resting in his hand. The artist captures the young man in fine detail, paying attention to the soft, natural...