Unknown

19th-Century British School, Portrait Of The Fully-Rigged Clan Mackenzie

c. 1890

This late 19th-century oil painting by English artist Edward Robert Smythe (1810-1899) depicts a picturesque bay with buildings, fishing boats, figures and horses. Smythe was a maste...

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 Austrian artist Otto von Thoren (1828-1889) depicts three horses pulling a cart across a shallow ford. Von Thoren was a celebrated painter of l...

This late 17th-century Italian oil painting depicts a view with distinctive Italianate architecture including a building with an iconic portico and pediment. Popular in mid-17th-cen...

Signed lower right. Contemporary artist Julian Nemethy is the son of artist Albert Nemethy, and his work can be distinguished from that of his father by the use of fantastical eleme...

Unknown Artist, Late 19th Century Signed: L.H. (Lower, Right) Along a Winter Path, c. 1880s Oil on Canvas 22" x 36" Housed in a 4" Ornamented Frame Overall Size: 30" x 44" An ...

Anonymous (English School) The Ballad Singers, ca. 1820 Oil on canvas Lively, theatrical, and brimming with charm, The Ballad Singers is a rare surviving example of early 19th-centu...

A captivating vintage farm scene by Lu Ann Barrow executed in oil on canvas in 1973. The picture features a night scene in a field of yellow flowe...