Imre Knopp

Portrait of a Boy with Hoop - Victorian Hungarian art male portrait oil painting

Circa 1900

Painted by Sara Wells Page this is a large stunning half-length Pre-Raphaelite portrait oil painting of a semi clad young woman. It was painted circa 1900 by Page who worked and exhi...

A late 19th century British Society portrait oil painting of a beautiful young debutante by Victorian artist Annie Louisa Swynnerton which is signed and dated 1893. It has been sugge...

This charming mid-19th-century oil painting attributed to English artist Edward John Cobbett (1815-1899) depicts a seated girl carrying a wicker basket within rolling scenery. Cobbett was a skilled English painter of landscapes and genre who exhibited regularly at London’s Royal Academy. This piece from around 1860 is emblematic of his rose-tinted escapism and celebrates the honest endeavours of rural life. The details are rendered skilfully, particularly the hands, skin tones and head. While the composition, with the horizon line crossing just beneath the shoulders, creates interest and permanence. He fathered twelve children, including eight daughters, so it’s plausible that some of them appeared in his portraits. The girl bears some resemblance to his depiction of ‘The Crofter's Daughter’. Born in Westminster, London, Cobbett was initially trained as a wood carver, probably by his father, who was a skilled ‘carver and gilder’. Evidently, the young man adopted the trade with considerable vigour, as some of his early carvings can be seen at York Minster. Around the age of 20, he began to pursue a career as an artist, and it's presumably at this point that he undertook formal tuition with the landscape painter Joseph William Allen (1803-1852). Allen was a founding member of the Society of British Artists, and his influence is evident. Following his 1833 debut at London’s Royal Academy, he matured into an artist of considerable merit, particularly popular among the rising middle classes. He was known by the Victorian press as one of the last great ‘bohemians’, thus associating him with a social and cultural milieu of freedom-loving, anti-establishment creatives. As a member of London’s Savage Club, his circle was a most intriguing one and included writers, artists, and musicians who sought to live on the fringes of society. This liberal sense of ‘joie de vivre’ translated through his work into depictions of ebullient country folk undertaking wholesome daily activities. Via his numerous rustic characters, he celebrated a simpler, albeit idealised, working-class utopia. The urban-dwelling bourgeois lapped it up, escaping into the abundance of an imagined moor, and vanishing into a community unplagued by formal rigour. Aside from the Royal Academy, his works were also shown at the British Institution, Liverpool Academy, and the Society of British Artists, where he was elected a member in 1856. He’s known to have collaborated with both William Shayer (1787-1879) and George Cole (1810-1883). He’s represented in numerous public collections, including at Glasgow Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Worcester City Art Gallery, and York Art Gallery. Provenance: Private collection, UK. Artist’s auction maximum: £20,052 for ‘Rural Idyll (1859)’, Oil on canvas, De Veres...

The Cornish Fisherman Signed by David W. Haddon (British, flourished end of the 19th century) Oil on board, framed framed: 13 x 11 inches board: 10 x 8 inches Provenance: Private col...