Benjamin Williams Leader

Conway Bay, Low Water

1894

Oil on artist panel, signed and dated lower left. It measures 19.75" x 22.75" including the frame, which is likely the original. Benjamin Williams Leader RA (12 March 1831 – 22 March 1923) was an English landscape painter. The inspiration for these early works was the countryside around Worcester itself, "the cottages, farmhouses, lanes, hedgerows and churches, so exceedingly picturesque and beautiful". However, Leader did not finish his course of studies at the R. A, nor did he need to – his paintings proved to be in great demand by wealthy buyers and he achieved an enviable degree of commercial success within only a few years of his first sale. In 1857 he changed his name to Benjamin Williams Leader to distinguish himself from the many other painters with the surname Williams. In autumn of that year he travelled to Scotland, and painted A Quiet pool in Glen Falloch...

A luminous Autumn oil on canvas board landscape, probably of the hills in the Hudson River Valley, by the noted American artist William Louis Sonntag (1822-1900). Signed in the lower right. Sonntag was born near Pittsburgh, PA and moved to Cincinnati, OH in the 1840’s to study art. He studied for a brief time with G. Frankenstein at the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Art and his idealized paintings of American wilderness and visionary paintings of imagined European ruins were commercially successful. He traveled twice to Europe in the 1850’s to improve his skills, eventually settling in New York City. He joined the National Academy of Design, where he exhibited his works for forty years. His mature works identify him with the Hudson River School of landscape painters. A romantic and naturalistic painter of his surroundings, Sonntag also created idealized paintings of Roman ruins, recalling his European trips of earlier years. Sonntag was an Associate (1860) and Academician (1861) at the National Academy of Design, and a member of the American Watercolor Society, Artists Fund Society, and the American Art Union...

Oil on panel, signed and dated 1894 in the lower left and inscribed on the reverse. The frame measures 15.25" x 19.25". Leader was born in Worcester as Benjamin Leader Williams, the son, and first child of eleven children, of notable civil engineer Edward Leader Williams (1802–79) and Sarah Whiting (1801–88). His father was described as a "non conformist dissenter" and his mother was a Quaker – their marriage in an Anglican church resulted in them being disowned by the Society of friends. Leader's father was a keen amateur artist – a friend of John Constable – and Benjamin would often accompany him on sketching trips along the banks of the River Severn. His brother, also Edward Leader Williams, later became a notable civil engineer who was knighted for his work, and is now mainly remembered for designing Manchester ship canal...

"The Harbour Mouth" by F. E. Jamieson (British 1895-1950) signed lower corner with the artists pseudonym 'Phil Hips' oil painting on canvas, unframed canvas: 16 x 24 inches Fine quality antique oil painting by the much admired and celebrated British artist F. E. Jamieson (1895-1950). The painting is signed by Jamieson to the lower corner with one of his pseudonym's "Phil Hips". The painting captures this rarer subject for the artist, depicting the mouth of a coastal inlet harbour entrance. F. E. Jamieson (1895-1950) We are extremely fortunate to have been handling the works of the enigmatic British artist, F. E. Jamieson since the year we began art dealing, 1989. Over this time, coupled with our love of the Scottish landscape, we have bought and sold many hundreds of his paintings, in all their various guises and subjects and are considered by many to be a leading authority on the artist and his work. We are also in the early stages of publishing the Catalogue Raisonne for this artist, of which this painting will be featured. Mr. Jamieson was largely a painter of Scottish landscapes and loch scenes. Born in 1895, Jamieson lived on the south coast of England and was contracted to a large department store to supply them with his paintings. He was an ambitious man and keen to sell more works than through just one shop. In order to do this, he started to sign his works with pseudonyms other than his own name, in order that he could sell his work to a wider audience. It worked and it is considered that Jamieson at least 15 different pseudonym names on his paintings. In addition to selling through furniture shops, Jamieson would travel door to door offering his paintings to housewives and private buyers. In our years of researching the artist, we heard one story related to us by an old customer who remembers that Jamieson started selling door...