Philippe Swyncop

Philippe Swyncop, Portrait Of A Girl, Gouache

c. 1920

This early 20th-century mixed media by K & K Hof Atelier Pietzner of Vienna depicts a respectable family within a neoclassical garden setting. With the advent of photography, afflue...

This late 19th-century gouache by British artist Joseph Knight (1837-1909) depicts a gentle moorland landscape with cattle. Knight was primarily known for his naturalistic depictions of North Wales. Raised amid the hurried industrious streets of Chorlton-Upon-Medlock in Manchester, Knight was obliged to pursue a career at one of its many cotton mills. His father, also Joseph Knight, was a mill engineer and would’ve expected his son to follow suit. It appears he was sent to work at the age of four - unthinkable today, but not uncommon in the 1840s. In around 1841, Knight was involved in an accident, which resulted in the loss of his right arm. This probably coincided with him being sent, together with his siblings, to stay with relatives, Thomas and Jane Knight, also of Chorlton. Evidently, following this, he undertook a change of direction, taking the first steps on a path to artistry. During the mid to late 19th century, landscape paintings grew in popularity partly due to the desires of a new middle-class buyer but also as a tonic for increasing urbanisation. And perhaps there’s no better example of an artist who understood the restorative qualities of nature than Joseph Knight. In his early teens, he gained employment at a photography studio, primarily assisting with portraiture. With a keen eye for composition, his skills flourished and were met with much approval from staff and customers alike. It was here that he first met with Mr. Henry Crowley who was so taken by the boy’s aptitude that he encouraged him to seek a career as a painter. Crowley funded his education, enrolling him at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, where the emphasis was on honing one’s draughtsmanship in a strict environment via diligent study and life drawing. With his technique now evolved, commissions were forthcoming - both as a painter and photographer. In the 1861 census, now married, he records his occupation as ‘Photographic artist and painter in oil’. It’s plausible that he was involved in adding tints to photographic portraits during this period while also working as a painter. As recognition of his development, in 1868, he was elected as a full member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, and a year later debuted at London’s Royal Academy with ‘Evening, Near Quimper, Brittany’ and ‘Breton Peasants’. It was around this time that he came to the attention of several of his younger contemporaries who viewed his naturalistic approach as altogether fresher and entirely modern. In a quiet rebellion against their formulaic training, they undertook to paint directly from nature, ‘en plein air’, without the rigour of academic constraints. The group, which included Joshua Anderson Hague...

Signed upper right, 'C. Mariani' for Carlo Maria Mariani (Italian, 1931-2021) and dated 1959. Framed dimensions: 22.5 x 1.5 x 17.5 inches A native of Rome, Carlo Mariani first studied there at the Academy of Fine Arts where he was influenced by the prevailing styles of Hyper-Realism and Conceptualism. In 1994, he moved to New York City where he began to paint figural landscapes in a traditional, neo-classical style. The 1990s brought Mariani wide recognition and numerous honors, as he represented Italy three times at the Venice Biennale. Additionally, in 1998, he received the prestigious Antonio Feltrinelli Award for lifetime achievement in painting. Mariani continues to be best known for his refined and painterly, Renaissance technique. He was a central figure in Rome’s avant-garde in the 1970s and is widely regarded as an influential forerunner of 1980's Postmodernism. He achieved an international reputation, beginning in the early 1980s, for his arcane and, often, controversial paintings...

Tsuguharu Foujita 1886-1968 Japanese-French Portrait of a Mother and Child Signed “Foujita / Paris” (lower left) Ink and watercolor on paper An artistic luminary well ahead of his time, Tsuguharu Foujita burst onto the international art scene in the early 20th century as one of the most important artists in early Japanese modernism...