Robert Henry Lewis

Robert Henry Lewis, Modernist etching of Sofie the sleeping cat

1964

A wonderful image by one of the great modern masters of English art, depicting a whimsical pastiche of Kew Gardens. Edward Bawden (1903-1989) Kew Gardens Signed, titled and numbered 36/40 Engraving 17 x 10.5 cm Edward Bawden was a watercolourist, illustrator, designer, printmaker and teacher, born in Braintree, Essex, the county in which he spent much of his life, finally living in Saffron Walden. Studied at Cambridge School of Art from 1919, then at Royal College of Art, 1922-5, on a scholarship, in the design school being taught by Paul Nash. Soon began on commercial work for Poole Pottery and Curwen Press, then in 1928-9 with Eric Ravilious and Charles Mahoney did decorations for Morley College. Bawden went on studying engraving and bookbinding at Central School Arts and Crafts after leaving the Royal College and himself taught there, the Royal Academy Schools and Goldsmiths' College School of Art. First one-man show at Zwemmer Gallery in 1934, after which he showed extensively including RA, being elected RA in 1956. Work poured from Bawden's studio in the 1930s, for companies such as Shell-Mex; book illustrations such as Good Food, 1932, and The Week-end Book, 1939; and a mass of often ephemeral work which evinced a wonderful wit, economy and aptness to subject. Official War Artist in World War II, much of his output being in the Imperial War Museum. Tate Gallery and many other public collections hold his work. Bawden did decorations for the SS Orcades and Oronsay and for the Unicorn Pavilion for the Festival of Britain of 1951. His son was the artist Richard Bawden...

***Please note the glass will be removed for shipping*** For local and London deliveries the glass can be retained if agreed prior to purchase. George Large, R.I. (born 1936) Street musicians Signed and dated (19)91 Watercolour over traces of pencil 15¾ x 26 25½ x 35 with frame ​​ George Large is a painter in watercolour and oil, born in Islington, London in 1936. He studied at Hornsey College of Art (1958-63), teachers including Maurice de Sausmarez, John Titchell and Alfred Daniels. Large spent some time in the display department of Simpson’s, Piccadilly, was part-time at Hornsey College of Art, then head of department at St Julian...

Etching and drypoint on cream wove paper, full margins. Signed and numbered 59/75 in pencil, lower margin. Notations in pencil along the lower sheet edge, recto, well outside of ima...

Signed lower right, 'Arthur B. Davies' for Arthur Bowen Davies (American, 1862-1928) and created circa 1915. An early twentieth-century sugar-lift aquatint showing Zeus in the guise of a swan, reclining and cradling Lida in his wings while King Tyndareus ponders the mutability of human circumstance. Born in Utica, New York, Arthur Davies attended the Chicago Academy of Design from 1879 to 1882. He furthered his studies at the Chicago Art Institute, before moving to New York City in 1885 where he studied at the Art Students League and Gotham Art Students League. In 1893, he made the first of many trips to Europe, visiting Holland, Paris, and London. He became an arch-exponent of Modernism and the central organizing figure of 1913's watershed Armory Show. Davies developed a style that combined visionary Symbolism with elements of Tonalism and Cubism. Who Was Who in American Art describes him as an “…important but enigmatic Modernist whose work was poetic, mysterious, and visionary”. Davies was the recipient of many gold medals and prizes and juried awards and his work is held in the permanent collections of museums nationwide, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. Photo of Arthur B Davies circa 1907 in New York City by Gertrude Käsebier courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. Reference: Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 1, p. 835; Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 1, p. 280; Thieme-Becker Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zu Gengenwart, Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 7/8, p. 470; E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 4, p. 293; Davenport’s Art Reference and Price Guide 2009/10 Edition, LTB Gordonsart, Inc. 2008, p. 672; et al. Additional biographical information follows, written by Catherine Southwick and Robert Torchia from the National Gallery of Art Online Editions: Arthur B. Davies’s mystical, mysterious paintings hearken back to 19th-century romanticism, even while Davies aligned himself with American artists advancing the most radical ideals of their day. Davies was born on September 26, 1862, in Utica, New York, the son of English and Welsh parents who had immigrated to the United States in 1856. He first took art lessons as a teenager from a local landscape painter, Dwight Williams...