Alfred Walter Williams

Alfred Walter Williams, Barmouth Sands, North Wales, Oil Painting

1887

This early 20th-century oil painting by British artist Henry Hillingford Parker (1858-1930) depicts a Highland loch with cattle, track and mountain. Parker adored the natural world ...

This charming late 19th-century French School oil painting depicts a forest view with deer. Stylistically, it fits with the approach taken by the Barbizon school of artists who were...

This charming late 19th-century oil painting by British artist Alfred Augustus Glendening (1840-1921) depicts a picturesque river landscape with cattle and ducks. Born in Hampton on Thames, London, Glendening was raised in an area popular with Victorian artists. The river, with its zig-zagging steamboats and silvery waters, providing ample inspiration for a young impressionable mind. This fascinating environment delivered the building blocks for his artistic development, and one can imagine him sketching on the riverbank along with other painters. It would take a little time before he turned to art as a career but, once he pursued his calling, success was inevitable. Travel during the mid-19th century was becoming a little easier thanks to the emerging rail network, and Glendening filled his sketchbooks on various cross-country trips. In 1864, he debuted at The Royal Society of British Artists with a view from Cumbria’s picturesque Lake District. And the following year, he exhibited ‘A Cornfield, Kent’ at the Royal Academy. Many of his works were centred around shimmering water with the Isle of Wight another frequent destination. Soon, the rising middle classes took note and he quickly became a firm favourite. With views in North Wales, the Highlands, Surrey, and Devon captured with a deft touch. His approach was predominantly naturalistic and lacked the grandiosity of many early Victorian painters. His tranquil vignettes are skilfully observed with dapples of light dancing across reflected foliage. The occasional bird picked out with weight and movement. Here, in this picturesque sunlit view from 1896, he captures nature at her most buoyant. Cattle cool off under a prominent beech tree as the surface of the skilfully-handled river flickers into life. Glendening’s exquisite draughtsmanship was matched by a keen understanding of tone and value - resulting in balanced compositions with blissful moods. By 1903, he’d exhibited 47 works at the Royal Academy. Quite an achievement for a late starter. Today, various museums hold examples including at Southampton and Newport. Signed/dated lower left and held within a later frame. Provenance: Private collection, Germany. Artist’s auction maximum: £32,000 for ‘Bramber Castle’, Oil on canvas, Christie’s, 19th Century Pictures...

This charming 19th-century oil painting by Danish artist Christian Berthelsen (1839-1909) depicts a village scene with storks nesting atop a timber-framed dwelling. Is it simply a gentle portrayal of idyllic family life? Or does it allude to a sinister fairy tale by a well-known Danish author? Berthelsen was born on the small picturesque island of Føhr, where most families worked the land and lived in villages peppered with quaint thatched cottages. Amid these rural communities, children became familiar with various folk stories including those told so menacingly by the author Hans Christian Andersen. In 1839, the year Berthelsen was born, Andersen published ‘Storkene’, a typically macabre tale involving a family of storks. It begins: "On the last house...

William Sidney Cooper British, (1854-1927) At Marshside, Kent Oil on canvas, signed & dated 1920, inscribed in pencil verso Image size: 15.5 inches x 23.5 inches Size including fram...

Louis Bosworth Hurt British, (1856-1929) Highland Cattle Oil on canvas, signed Image size: 12.25 inches x 18.25 inches Size including frame: 18.25 inches x 24.25 inches A wonderful...

Henry Deacon Hillier British, (1858-1930) Near Killin, Perthshire Oil on canvas, signed, inscribed verso Image size: 27.25 inches x 21.25 inches Size including frame: 35 inches x 29...

English landscape painter from the 1870's who exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institute in London. He mostly painted in watercolors and this example would have been p...