John Pettie

John Pettie RA HRSA, The Hour

1878

This beautiful mid-20th-century oil painting by Swedish artist Sam Uhrdin (1886-1964) depicts a woman playing the guitar in a gently lit room at twilight. Bathed in a warm radiance ...

This early 19th-century central European oil painting depicts Christ The Saviour standing atop an orb and carrying a cross over his left shoulder. An unusual composition, Christ’s rather striking posture is perhaps more ‘Saturday Night Fever’ than it is sacramental. However, the iconography is archaic and derived ultimately from New Testament illustrations dating to the Middle Ages. Depictions of orbs are usually symbolic of the universe, while the cross alludes to redemption. Hence, it’s a visual representation of Christ as the Saviour of humanity. Francisco de Zurbarán...

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...

This witty early 20th-century oil painting by British artist Edgar Bundy ARA RI RBA (1862-1922) depicts a young country woman visiting the home of her wealthy relatives, to much dism...

Wonderful French period copy of the famous painting by Jean-Baptiste Édouard Detaille, which the original is now in a museum in Paris. This piece came from a private collection in New Jersey where it had been since it was purchased in France back in the 1950s. The previous owner was an Art dealer in NYC during the 1950s-70s and she kept some of her favorite paintings, this being one of them. The piece was re-framed in the 1990s In 35 years of dealing in paintings, I have never seen another example of this scene, it is very rare.! History of the scene: In the Siege of Hüningen (27 November 1796 – 1 February 1797), the Austrians captured the city from the French. Hüningen is in the present-day Department of Haut-Rhin, France. Its fortress lay approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of the Swiss city of Basel and .5 miles (0.80 km) north of the spot where the present-day borders of Germany, France, and Switzerland meet. During the time of this siege, the village was part of the Canton of Basel City and the fortress lay in an area contested between the German states and the First French Republic. The siege occurred within the French Revolutionary Wars during which Revolutionary France ranged...

Wonderful 19th-century Austrian portrait of a young girl in a pretty white and red dress. Simonson was an Austrian painter of portraits and histori...

19th century English school Portrait of a young gentleman (a scholar?) in dress suit oil on canvas, framed framed: 21 x 19.5 inches canvas: 14 x 1...

Portrait of a Lady French School, 19th century oil on canvas, framed framed: 34 x 29 inches canvas: 30 x 25 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sou...