Frederick Henry Howard Harris

Pair of 19th Century military oil paintings of volunteer rifle soldiers

1872

Herbert ‘William’ Weekes British, (1841-1914) Admiring the Catch Oil on canvas, signed Image size: 30 inches x 21.5 inches Size including frame: 36.5 inches x 28 inches A wonderful...

David Bates British, (1840-1921) The Shadoof Oil on canvas, signed, further inscribed verso Image size: 19.75 inches x 29.75 inches Size including fram...

William Edward Webb British, (1862-1903) Penzance Harbour Oil on canvas, signed Image size: 29 inches x 45.5 inches Size including frame: 38 inches x 54.5 inches A pleasing coastal painting of Penzance Harbour at low tide by William Edward Webb. In the foreground, a fisherman sells his catch to a woman and her daughter, whilst figures in horses and carts wait for others to unload their boats. William Edward Webb was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1862 to William Benjamin Webb and Ellen Butler. His father was a printer and an artist and it is highly likely he received tuition from him. Following the death of his mother, his father remarried and moved the family to Manchester sometime after 1871. By the 1880’s, Webb had started working as an artist and later set up a studio at 30 Exchange Buildings in Manchester. He began exhibiting at the Manchester City Art Gallery from 1890, where he showed more than 60 paintings during his lifetime. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy and Walker Art Gallery Liverpool from 1892. He married Clara Foster in 1899 and the couple lived at 1 Sylvan Grove, Chorlton Upon Medlock in South Manchester with their daughter Florrie. He became friends with the artist Walter Emsley (1860-1938) who also lived in Manchester. Although he spent the rest of his life in Manchester, Webb travelled throughout the UK painting coastal and marine scenes around the main ports and harbours. He spent a great deal of time in the Isle of Mann painting numerous scenes along the coast including views of Peel and Douglas Harbour, subjects he frequently returned to. Webb painted in a highly distinctive style; loose and informal but which manages to retain the sense of perspective. He struggled with ill health and depression throughout his life which sadly led to his suicide 9 November, 1903. In 1974, a retrospective exhibition was held at The Old Customs House and Old Solent House in Lymington, which brought a new found interest in his work. His paintings are now highly sought after and are represented in many collections and Museums including the Astley Hall...

William Stephen Coleman British, (1829-1904) By the Fish Pond Oil on canvas, signed & dated 1898 Image size: 23 inches x 35 inches Size including frame: 30.25 inches x 42.25 inches A beautiful painting by William Stephen Coleman of a woman with two girls in a semi classical style by a Mediterranean pond. The woman is depicted resting on a terrace with her young daughter asleep on her lap, whilst another child catches goldfish in a bowl. This tour de force would have most likely been painted by Coleman as an exhibition piece. William Stephen Coleman was a figurative painter who was born in Horsham in 1829. He was one of 12 children born to a physician named William Thomas Coleman and his wife Henrietta (née Dendy). Three of his siblings Rebecca Coleman (b1837), Helen Cordelia Angell (1847–1884) and George Coleman also became artists, inheriting their artistic talent from their mother’s side of the family. Coleman developed an interest in nature from an early age, producing drawings as a hobby. Despite his ability, he initially followed in his father’s footsteps and trained as a surgeon. However, this proved unsuccessful and by the age of 21 he had turned back to art, later gaining employment with the Dalziel Brothers, a firm of wood engravers who specialised in natural history illustrations. Sometime during the late 1850’s he moved to London where he married his first wife Henrietta Augusta Boultbee in 1858. Around the same time, he began producing illustrations for books; the first of which was entitled ‘Common Objects of the Country’ and published in 1858. He subsequently published two of his own books ‘Our Woodlands. Heaths, and Hedges’ in 1859 and ‘British Butterflies’ in 1860. After the death of his wife in 1860, his sister Rebecca and brother George went to live with him in Garway Road, Paddington. Rebecca would often assist him with the wood blocks for his illustrations. As well as working as an engraver, he also began producing classically influenced paintings featuring figures in landscapes. Initially these were executed in watercolours but later extended to oil paintings. He began exhibiting at the Dudley Gallery in 1865 and was one of the original committee members. He continued to exhibit there until 1879 and was a committee member up until 1881. By 1869, he had also begun to work on pottery decoration and in 1871 was asked by Minton’s to establish an Art Pottery Studio at Kensington Gore. Whilst at Minton’s, he produced figure designs for their ceramic ware. His sister Rebecca also worked at Minton’s and they moved to Belle Vue in Chelsea to be closer to the studio. From 1881, he lived at 3 St John’s Wood Studios, Queens Terrace in Paddington and in 1888 moved to 43 Broadhurst Gardens in Hampstead. In 1893 one of his classically inspired works ‘The Gold Fish Bowl...

Fine 19th century oil painting of a bustling Austrian/Germanic village with horse, rider and various figures outside an Inn, attributed to Arthur Georg Ramberg (1819-1879), well known for figurative genre paintings. The rider is carrying a bugle, apparently announcing news to the people; men are sitting by the table drinking, one with a raised stein. Women walking by stop to listen, a man carrying a sack has stopped to watch the rider, people are in the Inn doorway, and one is looking out the window. Children pause their playing. The scene is under a large tree beside the Inn; a whole community waiting for news. There is a great deal of detail in the scene, tree and Inn house...

Adolf Schreyer's "Arabian Rider at Dusk" is a stunning oil painting on canvas that depicts an Arabian rider in a golden sunset. By Adolf Schreyer 8.5" x 15.5" Oil on Canvas Framed...

A very tranquil scene of fishing boats moored in harbour with a sunlit sea beyond. Painted with a most attractive palette of blues and greens and with a pleasing composition that le...

This idyllic late 19th-century oil painting by English artist Edward William Cooke RA (1811-1880) depicts a west-country cove with two cottages, donkeys, figures, and fishing boats. Cooke was a highly renowned painter of marine scenes and landscapes who exhibited extensively at London’s Royal Academy. From our elevated vantage point, the view extends between two quaint cottages and across the beach before sweeping around the sandy coastline. Crystalline waters lap the shore, where moored craft rest. It’s an accomplished rendering of a challenging composition. It’s enhanced by trees, which essentially ‘frame’ the right side, while a wooded track provides interest on the left. Cooke was a keen admirer of the Dutch old masters, and the spirit of the Golden Age underpins this splendid work. In diaries, he recorded how he travelled by donkey to access elevated spots in the southwest, so it’s conceivable that he did so here. In his catalogue raisonné, it lists a work from the same year titled ‘Bay with Donkeys’. Born in Pentonville, London, Cooke was raised in the company of accomplished artists as both his father, George Cooke (1781-1834), and his uncle, William Bernard Cooke (1778-1855), were engravers. As such, they were associated with a circle of Victorian painters who aided Cooke’s early development. These included the highly regarded marine painter Clarkson Frederick Stanfield RA RBA (1793-1867), who provided frequent advice and inspiration. Indeed, as a teenager, Cooke produced numerous drawings after Stanfield’s works. A precocious talent, by the age of nine, he was already displaying an advanced understanding of engraving, particularly for ships, coupled with a natural, seemingly in-built skill as a draughtsman. Many of his early drawings depict pastoral landscapes after the masters, such as Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683), Paulus Potter (1625-1654), and Karel Dujardin (1626-1678). In an extraordinary turn of events, in 1820, his advanced abilities led to his first commission when he provided botanical illustrations for John Loudon's 'Encyclopaedia of Plants’. These were followed by drawings published in the 'Botanical Cabinet...