Marius Jean Antonin Mercié

Antonin MERCIE (1845-1916) French Belle Époque Portrait

1890

Albert MANTELET (1858-1958) A charming portrait of a young woman resplendent in her finest Sunday bonnet. Albert Goguet Mantelet was considered to be one of the most accomplished pupils of Ernest Hébert and Heinrich Lehmann. He painted fashionably attired women from French society. His style achieved critical acclaim and he quickly became an established artist. Throughout his long career he specialised in genre painting. His work can be found in the collections of Musees de Chateau Thierry...

Louise Jopling (1843-1933) Miss Enthoven A charming portrait of Miss Enthoven, thought to have been exhibited at the Dudley Gallery, London in the winter of 1878 under the title 'Portrait of Nelly - daughter of S Enthoven Esq.' Signed, dated, inscribed verso on the artist’s label and presented in its original kit-kat style frame.. Louise Jopling was one of the most highly regarded portrait artists of her time. Her sitters were the high society glitterati of the late Victorian era. Many examples of her work, for comparison, can be found on the artuk website. I am indebted to Dr Patricia de Montfort, Curator for Whistler Studies at the University of Glasgow for this research and the inclusion of this work in her catalogue raisonné. Credit Wikipedia Louise Jane Goode was born in Manchester, the fifth of the nine children of railway contractor Thomas Smith "T.S." Goode and his wife Frances. She married at seventeen to civil servant Francis "Frank" Romer. The Baroness de Rothschild, a connection of Romer's, encouraged Louise to pursue and develop her art. In the later 1860s, she studied in Paris with Charles Joshua Chaplin and Alfred Stevens, and first exhibited her work at the Salon. She entered works into the Royal Academy shows, 1870–73 (as Louise Romer). After Romer's 1872 death, she married Vanity Fair artist Joseph Middleton Jopling in 1874, who in 1888 was best man at Whistler's wedding to Beatrix Godwin. Of the children from her first marriage only one son, Percy Romer, survived childhood. She had another son, Lindsay Millais Jopling, by her second marriage; the child was named after his two godfathers Sir Coutts Lindsay, founder of the Grosvenor Gallery and John Everett Millais. She achieved fair success in her career: her painting Five O'Clock Tea was sold for £400 in 1874. Her Five Sisters of York was shown at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876, and her The Modern Cinderella at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Yet she was not immune to the gender discrimination of her time: in 1883 she sought a portrait commission for 150 guineas, but lost it to Sir John Everett Millais, who was paid 1000 guineas for the same project. Jopling exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. She joined the Society of Women Artists (1880) and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (1891); she became the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Society of British Artists (1901). During the years of her marriage with Jopling, she became the primary earner of the family. It is said that, "She found this responsibility weighty and stressful, necessitating constant production, regular sales and a continual search for commissions and clients. In 1879, despite her own illness and that of her son Percy, she produced eighteen works." Social life Jopling "painted portraits of titled sitters, wealthy financiers and actresses" and, to operate in this social milieu, she maintained a fashionable lifestyle, with a Chelsea studio at 28 Beaufort Street, designed by William Burges. She moved in a social circle that included James McNeill Whistler, Oscar Wilde, Kate Perugini (née Dickens) and Ellen Terry. Augustus Dubourg dedicated his 1892 play Angelica to her. In 1887 the society magazine The Lady’s World described her social circle, One year we have her portrait, magnificently sketched by Millais, adorning the walls of the Grosvenor; next season she figures as the heroine of a ‘society’ novel from the pen of a popular writer. One week we see her salon drawn by Mr. Du Maurier in Punch, with sketches from the life of herself and her friends; the week after she appears under another name as the heroine of one of those quasi-malicious town and country tales which amuse the readers of a society paper… Over the mantelpiece hangs the portrait, by her old friend Sir John Millais...

Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin PILS (1815–1875) A bewitching portrait of a young redheaded woman attributed to Isidore Pils. The same sitter appears in another of his other paintings,...

A sensitive portrait of Malvina signed, dated 1882 and presented in its original magnificent heavy gilt frame. Van Landuyt was a Belgian School painter who studied at the Royal Aca...

A magnificent portrait of Henry Izod aged 67 in 1726, unsigned, but attributed verso to De Coning. Presented in a delightful frame probably the original. Th...

English School 18th Century Old Master Portrait Dated 1767. An intriguing painting dating to the mid 18th century bearing a label verso which is indistinct, but appears to read, “Mr...

Wonderful impressionist painting. Full of light, color, and movement. "The Flamenco Dancer by J. Charles Arter ( American 1860-1923). Oil on canvas. Signed upper left. Circa 1900. Unframed. Born in Hanoverton, Ohio, Charles Arter studied in Cincinnati and Paris at the Academie Julian. He had studios in Venice, London and New York and painted portraits of many famous personages including Pope Pius X...

Bohemian woman Budapest, Hungary 1925 by Bertha De Hellebranth. Fabulous period painting brings to life the bohemian intelligentsia of Europe in the 1920's. I believe the painting is of the artists sister Elena Maria De Hellebranth. Both sisters were accomplished artist and worked and exhibited together. See the photo of the sisters Elena on the left and Bertha on the right. Oil on canvas. In a period frame. Signed lower right. Inscribed on reverse. Provenance: label from Newman Galleries Philadelphia. BIOGRAPHY ; Bertha de Hellebranth and her sister Elena were born into a cultured upper-class family in Budapest, Bertha in 1899, Elena in 1897. Their father was a lawyer and their mother a student of Franz Liszt's last living pupil. Both sisters showed artistic potential early, beginning to paint at four or five years of age. Their parents encouraged them, and had the means to send them to the best art schools of the time. They studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Budapest, at the Académie Julian and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and painted portraits of European nobility. As Patricia Fazekas points out, "Growing up in a family of privilege, they seemed to have unusual access to many illustrious people." So we should not be surprised to find among their subjects members of high society, such as Count Andrássy Gyula, the Russian-born Princess Baby Galitzine, and Admiral Horthy Miklós, the Regent. Later on, their subjects included American heiress Gladys Vanderbilt (Countess László Széchenyi), President Theodore Roosevelt's granddaughter Paulina Longworth and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.Often, the sisters would paint the same subject at the same time, offering the sitter a choice of portraits. Most often, the sitter wanted both renditions.While Elena concentrated on working in oil and watercolor, Bertha used gouache and oil to achieve her effects. Elena gave lectures and workshops, was a writer and also wrote popular and ecclesiastical music, while Bertha also went in for sculpture and handicrafts.From the mid-thirties until World War II, Bertha and Elena divided their time between their home in Budapest and a home on the ocean at Ventnor, NJ. In 1925, they showed their work at the Nemzeti Szalon in Budapest, and in 1926, they had a joint exhibition of their portraits in the US. Both exhibited their work at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and most major museums and galleries in the US. Bertha also had exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both Bertha and Elena were Fellows of the Royal Society of Art (London), and garnered numerous prizes. Bertha was awarded First Prize by the National Academy of the American Water Color Society one year, and the Grand Prize of the Audubon Society. She was one of the founders of the now defunct World League of Hungarian Artists Abroad (Külföldi Magyar Képz?m?vészek Világszövetsége), and received a Gold Medal from the Cleveland Árpád Akadémia in 1963. (Elena also received the Akadémia's gold medal in 1965.) Their work is found in museums and galleries too numerous to mention.The de Hellebranth sisters were devout Catholics, and this is evident in their many portraits of clerics...

JAMES CARROLL BECKWITH (1852-1917) Nita Oil on panel 10 1/16 x 7 5/8 inches Signed lower right Inscribed, “Background of/Nita Sewell/1897,” verso James Carroll Beckwith enjoyed enor...

An exquisite landscape oil on canvas painting featuring a farmerette ( lady farmer) enjoying the open view of a fertile wheat field with the farm home in the background and mountain ...

Fernando Cueto Amorsolo (Filipino, 1892-1978) Signed: F Amorsolo 1937 (Lower, Right) " Girl in Pink Dress ", 1937 Oil on canvas 26 1/8" x 19" H...

Francis Humphrey Woolrych 1868-1941, American Portrait of a spanish woman in a church Painting, oil on paper glued on hardboard Signed Painting: 25.5 x 32.5 cm (10 x 12.8 inches) Fra...