John Dawson Watson

The Morning News

This grand scene depicts the interior of Knole House, a country house and former archbishops palace. Situated within the 1,000 acre Knole Park the house ranks in the top five of England's largest houses occupying a total of four acres. The majority of the canvas is given to a well furnished drawing room resplendent with various paintings, tapestries and furniture. To this day Knole House has one of the finest collections of 17th century English upholstered furniture in the world. Much of it was made for the royal palaces of the ruling Stuart dynasty and is of the highest quality. It is likely that the chair and footstools seen her originally came to Knole house as part of the vast collection put together by Charles, 6th Earl of Dorset. This work has incredible intricate detail in all aspects of the space including the depiction of flowers in vases, a bird in a cage and adorned trinkets. On the armchair sits an English guittar, popular in Victorian Britain. The instrument is recognisable for its pear-shaped body, flat base and rather short neck. A dog stands before an opened door leading further into the house. In the distance we are given just a glimpse of a lady and gentleman conversing at the window. From here a lovely flow of daylight floods into the rest of the scene making the whole work bright and airy. In the foreground on the windowsill is a music book with pages open and an untouched peach. This perhaps signifies the sudden rush of the young woman away from her resting place to meet the unexpected suitor outside. The Artist John Watkins Chapman...

Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse French 1859 - 1938 The Palace Courtyard Oil on canvas, signed lower left Image size: 26 ¾ x 19 ¾ inches (68 x 50 cm) Ornate orientalist gilt frame (Image ...

Oil on board, signed lower right and titled and dated lower left Image size: 19 1/2 x 16 3/4 inches Contemporary hand made frame

Oil on board, signed & dated lower right Image size: 4 x 4 inches  (10 x 10 cm) Handmade frame

James Cassie was born at Keithhall near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, the son of a prosperous tea and spirit merchant. Although briefly a pupil of the artist James Giles, Cassie was largely self-taught. He began his career as a painter of animals and portraits, but on moving to Aberdeen he increasingly turned his attention to local seascapes and coastal scenes, especially at dawn and sunset. He favored these outdoor scenes but continued to paint some domestic subjects and portraits throughout his life. In 1869 he moved to Edinburgh and was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. Shortly before his death in 1879 he was elected an Academician. This piece is framed in its original frame and the painting is signed lower right and inscribed on the reverse. From the inscription on the reverse, this painting was purchased from an important house sale...

Marcel Brunery French, (1893-1982) A Good Hand Oil on panel, signed Image size: 18.75 inches x 23.5 inches Size including frame: 26.75 inches x 31.5 inches Provenance: Frost & Reed ...

Signed and dated 92 lower left. Oil on canvas. Frank Bramley British, 1857-1915 Frank Bramley is considered one of the most important artists of the Newlyn School, the group of artists who settled in Newlyn, Cornwall during the 1880s and 1890s, drawn by the light, lifestyle and the example of Alexander Stanhope Forbes, and were at the forefront of 'British Impressionism'. He was particularly ‘in the news’ when his painting of a woman reading in a garden made the astonishing price of $590,000 at Sotheby's New York in late May 1996. As the seminal catalogue of the famous Newlyn School exhibition states, Bramley's reputation has rested for some time on Hopeless Dawn, his major RA exhibition of 1888, and which in recent years has been hung almost constantly at the Tate Gallery. Bramley was born in Lincolnshire and trained at Lincoln Art School, later at Verlat's Academy in Antwerp, from where he went to Venice in 1882-83, where our painting was executed. He first showed at the Royal Academy in London in 1884 (both paintings were Venetian scenes), and it was in the winter of 1884/5 that Bramley settled in Newlyn. He was a quiet and reserved figure, prone to bouts of melancholy. He worked on his own in a tiny studio in an old thatched cottage - the cottage consisted of two rooms, one at ground level (which was the studio) and one which was below ground which was inhabited by a woman who'd lost her arms and who managed to look after a set of tiny children as well as a small potato and turnip shop. Bramley moved to a purpose-built glass studio in 1889. He is known as the master of the so-called 'square-brush technique' which characterizes much of the best Newlyn School work and he used this until 1893, later than most of his colleagues. Bramley was friendly with the great artist Sargent and with him was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1894, being elected a full member in 1911. In 1891 he had married, and 4 years later they moved to the Midlands where his work became less socially orientated and more purely decorative. His last years were spent in a London flat...

Item is in excellent condition and has only been displayed in a gallery setting. Item includes frame; framed dimensions are approximately 31 x 38 inches. Cornelis le Mair is truly a renaissance man, encompassing all disciplines of the arts. He enjoys painting, drawing, writing, architecture, sculpture, and interior design. Le Mair was born in Eindhoven, The Netherlands in 1944. He began drawing and painting at the young age of five and while in kindergarten, he was often made to show his paintings in other classes even though he was shy about doing so. “When I could not play outside because of bad weather, I would sit in my bedroom and would draw.” His early art studies were widely influenced by the Rembrandt exhibit in the Rijksmuseum (1956) that he attended with his father. There le Mair was inspired by the Old Masters and “the desire to unravel all the mysteries hidden under the cracked varnish” began. Already having painted a lifesize copy of “The Nightwatch” on the wall of his bedroom, le Mair was continually driven by the Rembrandt exhibit. He began to experiment with resins, pigments and oils in order to hone and perfect the technique of the old masters. He studied drawings and paintings and early on developed the feeling of color and composition. After completing high school, he worked for a short period as a designer of woven fabrics. Although his heart desired to paint, he enjoyed having a pencil and brush in hand and a case full of art books and says, “This treasure of inspiring information took me further on track to the traditional trade.” At this same time, le Mair’s artistic endeavors led him to learn the art of music. First learning to play the guitar from friends, he began performing at youth centers. This love of music expanded into him learning to play the mandolin, turning lye, banjo, and bagpipes. Just after his eighteenth birthday, le Mair was accepted into military service where his lack of conforming led him to a maximum solitary confinement sentence. After a month in training, the army physician and le Mair agreed that he was born to be an artist and released le Mair from military services. Once he returned home, with the encouragement from his parents, le Mair began his art schooling at the Art Academy (Kustacademie) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. There he found that the school was geared for modernism and after painting a portrait of a fellow classmate, his teachers advised le Mair to look for a school where the traditional ideas were still taught. Longing to study the classical arts, he applied and was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts (Koninklijke Kunstacademie) in Antwerp, Belgium in 1965. After studying under Professor Victor Dolphijn, le Mair graduated cum laude in portrait and figure paintings in 1968. He was then promoted to study as a student of the Higher Institute, a structure at a higher university level where he studied under Rik Slabbinck...