Rev. Matthew William Peters, R. A.

The Gamesters. The Fortune Teller.

1786

Trompe l'oeil. [Punch and Judy]. Watercolor and drawing, undated, circa 1830. Paper size 10.25 x 14" (26.1 x 35.6 cm). On "J. Whatman" watermarked paper. Unidentified artist. A 19th-century visual montage of Cruikshank's "Punch & Judy." The images are taken from the book "The Tragical Comedy, or Comical Tragedy of Punch and Judy." As told to John Payne Collier by Giovanni in 1827, illustrated by George Cruikshank and published by S. Prowlett, London 1828. The central circle illustrates a drawing showing two allegorical female figures with two putti. The text under this image: “E Musao Hugonis Howard Armig, from Guercino.” On top of that illustration is a handsome painting of a flintlock pistol. Trompe l’oeil is an art of illustration – the name translates to ‘Trick of the Eye.” The puppet show of Pulcinella or Punch and Judy has a long and fascinating history. “A puppet play that would have featured a version of Punch was first recorded in England in May 1662 by the diarist Samuel Pepys. He noted seeing it in Covent Garden, London, performed by the Italian puppet showman Pietro Gimonde from Bologna, otherwise known as Signor Bologna. The earliest script of a Punch and Judy show...

Trompe l'oeil [untitled]. Homage.... Ink drawing, multimedia, 1837. Paper size 13.13 x 16.44" (33.3 x 41.8 cm). On watermarked paper "Blauw and Briel." Overall good condition. Small tears and the occasional bit of paper missing at the paper edge. Original color. Center paper crease - as issued. We believe the artist created this artwork on a sheet of paper that had been previously bound in a book. Dutch trompe l'oeil drawing with pen & ink, pencil, sepia, and black chalk, wax seal, and painted pigment. This montage of early 19th century ephemera depicts sheet music, scenic views, a sealed letter, cards, a portrait of an unknown sitter, and a penned sheet noting ... van S. G. Wezel Wassenaar, October 1837. Is this a homage to the individual portrayed, a metaphorical self-portrait, or just a random assortment of ephemera beautifully composed? The artist keeps us wondering and visually appeased by a striking harmony created through contrast. This piece starts with sheet music entitled; Romance Larghetto No 2. There is a Psalm and Op Jezus Geboorte (On Jesus Birth...

“INTERIORS IV : HOTEL PARADISE” Contemporary artist Peter Milton created this etching and engraving in 1987. The printed Image size is 24 x 35.50 inches and the paper size is 30.75 x 41.75 inches. This impression is signed, dated, and titled in pencil, and inscribed “84/175” – the 84th impression of an edition of 175 pieces. “I do love to draw. I feel that I am being granted membership in the Brotherhood of Merlin, conjuring forth some apparition. As a drawing develops, I sense a vague presence coming more and more into focus, something in a white fog emerging and becoming increasingly palpable.” – P. Milton, “The primacy of touch. The Drawings of Peter Milton” “Working in layers, Milton begins with drawings based on people and places, with nods to Western art history and culture. He is a master of the appropriated image, a term that may conjure Andy Warhol and his Pop Art comrades. But Milton steps further back in history, avoiding the Pop sense of cool advertising and popular culture references. Instead, a broader cultural past is tapped through historical photographs of key players, architecture, and locales, which he reinvents by hand. He adds content drawn from his life as an avid reader – always with multiple possible interpretations – thus incorporating deeper meaning in his cinematic worlds. Elements of Greek mythology, classical music, art history, and history coalesce in his images, which embrace the messiness, sorrow, and elation that is life. One is hard-pressed to imagine a more erudite, skilled, passionate, and cheeky soul.” – T. L. Johnson and A. Shafer Peter Milton was born in Pennsylvania in 1930. He studied for two years at the Virginia Military Institute...

Richard Florsheim created this color lithograph entitled “Carnival” in 1972 in an edition of 30 pieces. Published by Associated American Artists and printed by Landfall Press, this i...

The Magicians Message From Cuevas' Comedies. Screenprint with collage additions and five lithographs from a portfolio of ten lithographs (one with screenprint and embossing, one with embossing) and five screenprints (two double-sided, one with collage additions). Pencil signed and dated 1971, edition 84/100, blindstamp visible, published by Collector's Press, San Francisco. Framed under Plexiglas. Jose Louis Cuevas was born in Mexico City in 1933 -2017. A master draftsman, Jose Luis Cuevas played a pivotal role in Latin America's drawing and printmaking renaissance of the sixties and seventies. He is also associated with Latin America's neofigurative movement, along with artists such as Fernando Botero and Antonio Segui. By the age of fourteen, he had illustrated numerous periodicals and books and had had his first exhibition in Mexico City. In 1953 Cuevas published La cortina del nopal (The Cactus Curtain), an article condemning aspects of the Mexican Mural movement and advocating greater artistic freedom. This philosophy inspired the founding in 1960 of the group Nueva Presencia, which he joined for a brief time. It promoted individual expression and figurative art reflecting the contemporary human condition. Cuevas' work was influenced by the graphic art of Goya and Picasso as well as by Posada and Orozco, whose representations of deformed creatures, degraded humanity and prostitutes were of particular thematic interest. Over the years, he has paid homage to his favorite painters as well as writers, such as Dostoevsky, Kafka, Quevedo and Sade, in numerous series of drawings and prints. Cuevas has said that his drawing represents the solitude and isolation of contemporary man and man's inability to communicate. It is for this reason that he often distorts and transforms the human figure to the point of uniqueness. Cuevas has had solo exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the world including the: University of Texas, Austin, 1961, the San Francisco Museum of Art, California,1970, the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, 1972, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Caracas, 1974, Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, 1975, Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1976. His work was included in Four Masters of Line: Jose Luis Cuevas, Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, and Morris Graves, Musee de la Napoule, France, 1957 and in The Emergent Decade, Cornell University and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1965. Among his many awards are First International Prize for Drawing, Biennial of Sao Paulo, 1959, First Prize, International Black and White Exhibition, Lugano, Switzerland, 1962, First International Prize for Printmaking, Triennial of Graphic Arts, New Delhi, India, 1968, First Prize, III Latin American Print...

James Hardy Jnr British, (1832-1889) Playing Cribbage Oil on panel, signed & dated (18)58 Image size: 11.5 inches x 14.5 inches Size including frame: 20.25 inches x 23.25 inches Provenance: Mr J Taylor Esq; F C Mander, purchased March 1907. A delightful genre painting of a family playing a game of cards by James Hardy Jnr. A group of people are depicted sitting at a table in front of a fireplace in a rustic interior, playing cribbage. As four of the players study their cards, a woman gets up to help another player with their hand. Meanwhile, a tan and white dog watches on with interest. The reverse of this painting includes a handwritten inscription which reads: ‘This painting was purchased by the late Mr Taylor for £40 and bought by me at Public Auction at Addison Hall for £45. March 1907. F. C. Mander’. Further research has discovered that a public auction of the collection of a Mr J Taylor Esq was held by his Executors on Tuesday 5 March 1907 at Addison Hall, Addison Road, Kensington. Details of the sale including a mention of a work on offer by J Hardy, appeared in the Kensington News and West London Times on Friday 1 March 1907. Messrs F C Mander & Co were listed as the auctioneers involved in the sale. Their address at the time was 296, Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush. James Hardy Jnr was a genre and sporting painter born in Brighton, Sussex in 1832 into a family of artists. He was the son of the portrait and genre painter James Hardy (1801-1879) and his wife Elizabeth (née Vinson). His brothers David Hardy (1838-1870) and Heywood Hardy (1842-1933) and his sister Ada Hardy all became artists. His cousins Frederick Daniel Hardy...

Original stipple engraving with colors titled “Les Revers de la Fortune” (Reversal of Fortune) by the well known French engraver, Louis Marin Bonnet...

Deuchar, David (after van Ostade). The School Master. Edinburgh: c1800. Etching on cream wove paper, 5 5/8 x 4 1/2 inches (134 x 114 mm), trimmed at the platemark. Adhesive residue a...