Rex Whistler

The Plain Gangster - Early 20th Century British Illustration by Rex Whistler

1930

ALBERT RUTHERSTON, RWS (1881-1953) The Meeting with Caius Lucius – Illustration for The Tragedie of Cymberline Signed with initials l.r. Pen and ink Unframed 4.5 by 13 cm., 1 ¾ by 5 in. (mount size 39.5 by 33 cm., 15 ½ by 13 in.) Provenance: Estate of the artist Exhibited: London, Sally Hunter Fine Art, Albert Rutherston, Drawings, Theatre Designs and other Treasures, 2016, no.65 The present work was illustrated in Cymbeline, published by Ernest Benn in 1923. The series was a collaboration between Rutherston and Harley Granville-Barker following on from their work together 11 years earlier at the Savoy Theatre and celebrating the quatercentenary of the Shakespeare Folio edition. Born Albert Daniel Rothenstein, he was the youngest of the six children of Moritz and Bertha Rothenstein, German-Jewish immigrants who had settled in Bradford, Yorkshire in the 1860s. He and his siblings proved to be a hugely talented and artistic family, his elder brother became Sir William Rotherstein (1872-1945), the artist and director of the Royal College of Art; two of his other siblings, Charles Rutherston and Emily Hesslein, both accumulated major modern British and French art collections and his nephew Sir John Rothenstein was direct of the Tate Gallery. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School before moving to London in 1898 to study at the Slade School of Art where he became close friends with Augustus John and William Orpen. He met Walter Sickert during a painting holiday in France in 1900 and by introducing Sickert to Spencer Gove became instrumental in the beginning of the Camden Town Group. He was one of Sickert’s most frequent companions and was one of the original members of the Fitzroy Street Group. Rutherston had a sociable and attractive personality, he frequently travelled abroad with other artists including Max Beerbohm, Spencer Gore, Walter Russell and Edna Clarke Hall...

FRANCES WATT (1923-2009) London Stock Exchange Waiter Pen and ink and watercolour wash, unframed, in mount only 17 by 13 cm., 6 ½ by 5 in. Edith Frances Watt was born in Falkirk in 1923. In 1926 the family moved to Switzerland when her father, the Rev Thomas Meikle Watt, was appointed permanent chaplain to the Church of Scotland in Geneva. Her father died in 1938 and the family returned to Scotland where Frances continued her schooling at Aberdeen High School for Girls. Her mother moved the family to London in about 1940 and they settled in Southwood Lawn Road, Highgate. Frances attended the Hornsey School of Art were she gained a National Diploma in Design before going on to study at the Byam Shaw School in London, where she later taught. In Highgate she was a member of the Highgate Artists Group, which included Sir Kyffin Williams among its exhibiting members, and she was also an active member of the Highgate Choral Society, designing many programmes and posters for its productions in the 1950s. In the early 1960s she was commissioned by the Council of the Stock Exchange to record the daily life in the Square Mile. Over the next 20 years she was brilliantly placed to observe the enormous changes taking place in the great institutions of the Stock Exchange and Lloyd’s of London...

STEVEN SPURRIER (1878-1961) Charlie Chaffinch Signed; inscribed beneath the mount: Charlie Chaffinch. Sampsons Circus No.4 Faber & Faber Pen and ink, framed 17 by 9.5 cm., 6 ¾ by 3 ¾ in. (frame size 34 by 24.5 cm., 13 ½ by 9 ¾ in.) After an apprenticeship to his silversmith father, Spurrier studied art and became a freelance magazine illustrator contributing to such magazines as The Graphic, Illustrated London News and the Radio Times. He also produced posters for theatrical productions and illustrated books. From 1913 he exhibited his paintings at the Royal Academy, a favourite theme being circus performers. During the First World War he worked with the Admiralty developing dazzle camouflage...

FRANK WATKINS (1863-1929) The Boat Builder Giant Pen and ink, unframed, in conservation mount only 20.5 by 29.5 cm., 8 by 11 ¾ in. (frame size 36.5 by 45 cm., 14 ½ by 17 ¾ in.) Frank Henry Watkins was born in Lambeth, London and was the son of a bank clerk. He worked as a children’s book and comic illustrator in the early 20th century, drawing for many children’s stories including Dolly Twoshoes (1901); The Wonder and Dolly Daydream (1902); Illustrated Chips and Dick and Daisy (1919-1921) and also for Merry Moments. He provided book illustrations for The Man From the Moon by Philip Carmichael (1909); The Sun’s Babies by Edith Howes (1910); The King Who Never Died: Tales of King Arthur by Dorothy Senior (1910) and Fairy Rings...

A Gangster is an original watercolor drawing on paper, realized around the Seventies by the great Italian artist and journalist, Mino Maccari (Siena, 1898 - 1989). A watercolor (front) and tempera drawing (rear) on ivory-colored and laid paper. Excellent condition, except for imperceptible usual wrinkles of the paper. On the back another tempera drawing representing a sensual red mouth with parted lips, in the Pop style. With the incredible satiric and caustic touch of the illustrator of Il Selvaggio, this contemporray artwork depicts a Italian-American gangster...

Le Vieux Monsieur is a drawing realized by Hermann Paul. Hand Signed and titled on the lower left corner. Good condition except some ripples on the yellowed paper. René Georges He...

The Smith is an original drawing in pencil and watercolor realized by Rémy Hetreau in the mid-20th Century. In good conditions. The artwork is presented through expressive and deft...

Portrait is a drawing realized in the Mid-20th Century by Joseph Alexandre Colin. Charcoal ivory-colored paper Good conditions with slight foxing. The artwork is realized through ...