Harry John Johnson

A NOCTURNE CAPRICCIO WITH THE LYCIAN SARCOPHAGUS AT TELMESSOS

1843

A VIEW OF THE DOGANA & SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE, FROM THE MOLO (VENICE) Oil on paper 28 x 41.5 cm Provenance: Private Collection, Shropshire This and the other Venetian views by Warren in our stock presently were almost certainly painted en plein air, perhaps even from the comfort of a gondola, when Warren made his first and only journey to Venice between 1877-1878. One can still see the pin-prick holes in the paper where Warren likely attached it to a portable easel...

NICOLAS-DIDIER BOGUET (1755-1839) A VIEW OVER LAKE NEMI FROM THE NORTH Oil on canvas 81 x 112 cm Provenance: Private Collection, New York Boguet first studied in Paris under t...

MICHELANGELO MAESTRI (fl.1802-1812) THREE DESIGNS INSPIRED BY THE HERCULAENEAUM FRIEZES Gouache and watercolour Both 41 x 31 cm Provenance: Collection of Sir Jack & Lady Baer, Kensington The first of this pair is taken from the series of Seasons, based on the frescoes in the triclinium of the Villa of Cicero in Pompeii, which were discovered on 25th May 1748 (and which are now in the Archaeological Museum of Naples, inv. 9295). This particular subject shows Ceres, the Godess of Fertility, holding a basket of produce above her head, while a monkey clutches an olive branch beneath, with the caduceus - the staff of Hermes...

CHARLES-LOUIS CLÉRISSEAU (1721-1820) THE GARDENS AT THE VILLA D'ESTE AT SUNSET, TIVOLI Signed l.r. Clérisseau Pen & black ink, pencil, and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour 45.1 x 59 cm 81 x 77 cm [Framed] Provenance: [Purchased by a previous owner in the U.S. for $34,000 according to an earlier label] Private Collection, Madison Avenue, N.Y. ‘I found out Clérisseau .. in whom tho’there is no guile, Yet there is the utmost knowledge of Architecture, of perspective, and of Designing and Colouring I ever Saw, or had any conception of; He rais’d my Ideas, He created emulation and fire in my Breast. I wish’d above all to learn his manner, to have him with me at Rome, to Study close with him and to purchase of his works ..’ (Robert Adam to his brother James, 19th February 1755) Clérisseau was born in Paris and studied there under the auspices of Germaine Boffrand, an architectural draughtsman. At just 25 years old, Clérisseau won the foremost architectural prize in France, the Prix de Rome, and so travelled to the French Academy in Rome (housed in the Villa Medici) to take up residence as a pensionnaire. He arrived in 1749, and began to study under Giovanni Paolo Pannini, the great painter of architectural capricci. Clérisseau befriended two other great architectural draughtsmen, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and Claude-Joseph Vernet. Clérisseau remained in Rome for eighteen years, becoming an authority on antique Roman architecture, undertaking his own works, including his famous ruin room at the Trinita dei Monti convent, as well as teaching and acting as an artistic cicerone for other visitors. These visitors comprised a series of winners of the Prix de Rome, as well as French and British Grand Tourists, including some of the leading contemporary exponents of British neoclassicism, such as William Chambers and Robert and James Adam. For part of the 1750s, Clérisseau and Robert Adam shared lodgings in the Casa Guarnieri, near to the Spanish Steps. This was arguably one of the most important periods during Adam - who would become one of Britain’s most renowned architects. In his correspondence from this time, Adams mentions how Clérisseau suggested that he first learn to draw a plethora of ornamental motifs, often from Clérisseau’s own designs, before attempting full-scale architectural drawings. Clérisseau and Adam’s drawings from that time are largely rendered in pencil, pen and watercolour, and are either capricci or records of architecture, fragments and ornamental motifs from the buildings they encountered throughout Italy. The latter appear, on the whole, to have been drawn from life. On occasion, Clérisseau’s well-documented distortions of perspective, so as to show a piece of architecture to its best advantage, can be seen in Adam’s work too. The drawings utilise Clérisseau’s characteristic mode of depicting architecture in solid lines of ink but complement this with hazy watercolour backgrounds and imagined topographies. In 1757, Clérisseau even accompanied Robert Adam to Spalatro, Dalmatia (now Split, Croatia) for five weeks in order to survey the ruins of the Palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian for publication. Following Robert’s departure from Italy, Clérisseau supervised the production of the engravings for his publication, Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro… (1764). Moreover, many of the expedition drawings finally selected for engraving are thought to have been by Clérisseau himself rather than Adam or the other accompanying draughtsmen. However, he received no credit for this in Adam’s subsequent book, though this did nothing to stop his reputation’s ascendence. Clérisseau returned to Paris in 1767, a hugely respected artist in his own right. From the French capital, he cultivated a list of eminent clients, which included Catherine the great (who commissioned designs for a house and a triumphal bridge from the artist). The Russian Empress even gave Clérisseau the title Premier Architecte de Sa Majestée Impériale and made him an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In 1774, the 1st Marquis of Lansdowne commissioned Clérisseau to make designs for a library for Lansdowne House on Berkeley Square, London, but this was not executed. Soon afterwards, in 1785, Clérisseau was approached by Thomas Jefferson, then the United States Minister to France, to design the Virginia State...

CHARLES PERCIER (1764-1838) ELEMENTS D’ARCHITECTURE, AVEC LE SANGLIER BORGHÈSE Watercolour with pen & ink 29 x 20.8 cm Provenance: With Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox; Where purchased by Si...

FIGURES BY A STREAM IN AN ARCADIAN LANDSCAPE Signed & dedicated l.l. a son ami Gallier / Ach. Benouville Pencil, brown washes, chalk & bodycolour on...

A very fine painting by the renowned seascape painter Arthur Joseph Meadows,Off Calais; fishing fleet returning at low tide. Housed in an antique style gilt frame the size overall is...

A fine pair of oil paintings, oil on board depicting views of the Thames one showing houses of parliament the other barges in busy shipping lane. Framed and Glazed the size being 26 ...

After Aelbert Cuyp (unsigned) an oil on board country scene depicting a farmer and bull. The painting is in overall very good condition however the frame has some losses .Mainly to...

New Forest,Hampshire, 19th century,landscape oil, by Frederick Golden Short A fine small framed landscape oil painting on canvas of the new forest in hampshire with ponies by Frede...

A fine framed oil on canvas painting by the renowned artist William Sidney coope.Signed and dated 91 lower left. This painting depicts 3 cows resting by a river, a village with hous...

A lovely tranquil scene of LES LAVEUSES. Depicting houses by a stream/river with a woman washing her laundry.Framed Oil on canvas Signed and dated '74'(lower right) The size being...