Joachim Ferdinand Richardt

Joachim Ferdinand Richardt, River Baptism

1868

This mid-19th-century oil painting, attributed to English artist George Clarkson Stanfield (1826-1878), depicts a small vessel approaching a shipwreck, close to the coast. Stanfield ...

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...

This late 19th-century oil painting by British painter George William Mote (1832-1909) depicts a shepherd and his flock before an extensive view across the Surrey countryside near Gu...

This buoyant late 19th-century oil painting by Danish artist Niels Frederik Schiøttz-Jensen (1855-1941) depicts a coastal view in Capri, Italy, with a travelling family. Schiøttz-Jen...

Jasper F. Cropsey An Autumn Landscape Signed and dated J.F. Cropsey 1898 Oil on canvas 14 x 24 inches Provenance Private Collection Texas, acquired in the early 1900s Thence by desc...

Jasper F. Cropsey Janetta Falls, New Jersey, circa 1846 Signed J.F. Cropsey Oil on canvas 12½ x 10¾ inches Provenance Private Collection, New York, 1930s Thence by descent to the pr...

Sanford Robinson Gifford A Sketch of Clay Bluffs on No Man’s Land, South of Martha's Vineyard, 1877 Stamp on verso of canvas: S. R. Gifford [estate] Sale Typed label on upper stretch...

DeWitt Clinton Boutelle Sunset, Indian Summer, 1848-49 Signed and dated lower left Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches DeWitt Clinton Boutelle was born in Troy, New York. He moved to Phil...