Robert Russell Macnee

Robert Russell MacNee, Landscape With Farm, Track & Horses

1916

This endlessly charming mid-19th-century English oil painting depicts a rural scene with a family, cattle, pond, and cottage. A mother and child pause to observe a drover, perhaps f...

This mid-19th-century Belgian oil painting depicts a windswept landscape with a cottage, figures, copse and grazing cattle. A brisk gale rushes across the scenery, clutching at ever...

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 splendid mid-19th-century oil painting by English artists William Shayer (1787-1879) and Edward Charles Williams (1807-1881) depicts an assortment of travellers outside a roadsi...

A charming watercolour scene depicting a farmer driving a horse and cart over a river with two cows in tow. Signed to the lower right. Presented in a gilt frame. On paper.

This expressive landscape painting by Albert Mascaux (1900-1963) captures a rural scene with rustic farmhouses nestled amongst skeletal trees. The muted earth tones and loose brushwo...

A beautiful large 1930's Modern British oil on board depicting a horse in an extensive farmyard. Excellent quality work, presented in a fine antique gilt frame. Artist: British Scho...

This pastoral landscape painting depicts a rustic farmstead nestled among trees, with weathered buildings featuring reddish-brown roofs set against rolling countryside. The artist em...