19th Century Paintings

The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was one of the greatest disasters in the city’s history. The City, with its wooden houses crowded together in narrow streets, was a natural fire risk, and predictions that London would burn down became a shocking reality. The fire began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, an area near the Thames teeming with warehouses and shops full of flammable materials, such as timber, oil, coal, pitch and turpentine. Inevitably the fire spread rapidly from this area into the City. Our painting depicts the impact of the fire on those who were caught in it and creates a very dramatic impression of what the fire was like. Closer inspection reveals a scene of chaos and panic with people running out of the gates. It shows Cripplegate in the north of the City, with St Giles without Cripplegate to its left, in flames (on the site of the present day Barbican). The painting probably represents the fire on the night of Tuesday 4 September, when four-fifths of the City was burning at once, including St Paul's Cathedral. Old St Paul’s can be seen to the right of the canvas, the medieval church with its thick stone walls, was considered a place of safety, but the building was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was in the midst of being restored by the then little known architect, Christopher Wren and caught fire. Our painting seems to depict a specific moment on the Tuesday night when the lead on St Paul’s caught fire and, as the diarist John Evelyn described: ‘the stones of Paul’s flew like grenades, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with the firey redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.’ Although the loss of life was minimal, some accounts record only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was shocking – some four hundred and thirty acres, about eighty per cent of the City proper was destroyed, including over thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and fifty-two Guild Halls. Thousands were homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the subsequent fire of 1676, which destroyed over six hundred houses south of the Thames, changed the appearance of London forever. The one constructive outcome of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had devastated the population of London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze. The fire was widely reported in eyewitness accounts, newspapers, letters and diaries. Samuel Pepys recorded climbing the steeple of Barking Church from which he viewed the destroyed City: ‘the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw.’ There was an official enquiry into the causes of the fire, petitions to the King and Lord Mayor to rebuild, new legislation and building Acts. Naturally, the fire became a dramatic and extremely popular subject for painters and engravers. A group of works relatively closely related to the present picture have been traditionally ascribed to Jan Griffier...

Antique American school seascape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Image size, 30L x 24H.

Frank Myers Boggs (1855-1926) A wonderful exhibited piece depicting the busy life of Paris at the end of the nineteenth century. It was exhibited as is shown on the reverse shot in the photos. It is in the original gold leaf frame. Signed and inscribed on the reverse. The exhibition label is on the frame. Oil on Board Painting Size: 21 x 26" (53 x 66cm) Outside Frame Size : 32 x 37" (81 x 94cm) The Impressionist Frank Myers Boggs spent his formative and mature years abroad and in 1923 became a naturalized French citizen. He was born in Springfield, Ohio...

Ulrich Gleiter's (EUR based) "View from my Cottage First days of Spring" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts an impasto, plein air depiction of a winter landscape fram...

Antique American impressionist seascape beach scene oil painting. Oil on board. No signature found. Framed. Image size, 18L x 14H.

Finely painted panoramic landscape by Nellie Augusta Knopf (1875 - 1962). Oil on board. Framed. Image size, 12H x 16L. Signed verso.

This piece, "7th Avenue Twilight", is a 30x30 oil painting on canvas by artist Benoit Havard featuring a moody view down a bustling Manhattan New York City street. Buildings loom on both sides, giving a unique and life-like perspective to the viewer. An overall blue tone gives the painting a moody evening setting. Lights from taxi cabs and cars dot the painting with little glows of light. About the artist: Benoît Havard is an award-winning French artist whose works have been displayed nationally and in the United States. For him, artistic creation is an everyday search, where he is alone facing the canvas with his emotions and experience. Havard is intrigued by large cities filled with history. His practice is a constant search for composition and balance relating to gestures and graphics. He uses oils to 'paint in thickness and sculpt in matter'.This piece, "Broadway, NYC", is a 39x39 oil painting on canvas by artist Harvard...

This piece, "New York Aerial", is a 40x40 oil painting on canvas by artist Benoit Havard featuring a moody view from above bustling Manhattan, NYC. Bui...

Paper, 2020, Daniel Blagg, Oil on canvas, 38 x 58" By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Daniel Blagg invites his viewers to re-consider objects that ...

This piece, "Lower Manhattan", is a 39.5x39.5 oil painting on canvas by artist Benoit Havard featuring a moody view from above bustling Manhattan, NYC. Buildings in perspective line ...

Moonlite, 2021, Daniel Blagg, Oil on canvas, 38 x 58" By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Daniel Blagg invites his viewers to re-consider objects th...

Tribute, 2009, Daniel Blagg, Oil on canvas, 60 x 90" By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Daniel Blagg invites his viewer...