Romantic Art

The present print is one of several examples produced for Nathaniel Currier by his longtime collaborator Frances F. "Fanny" Palmer. Harry T. Peters wrote of her: "There is no more interesting and appealing character among the group of artists who worked for Currier & Ives than Fanny Palmer. In an age when women, well-bred women in particular, did not generally work for a living Fanny Palmer for years did exacting, full-time work in order to support a large and dependent family ... Her work ... had great charm, homeliness, and a conscientious attention to detail." One of a series of four prints showing American country life in different seasons, the image presents the viewer with a picturesque view of a successful American farm. In the foreground, a gentleman rides a horse with a young boy before a respectable Italianate country house. Two women and a young girl pick flowers in the garden and several farm workers attend to their duties. Beyond are other homes and a city on the coast. 16.63 x 23.75 inches, artwork 28.13 x 33.38 inches, frame Entitled bottom center "American Country Life - May Morning" Signed in the stone, lower left "F.F. Palmer, Del." Signed in the stone, lower right "Lith. by N. Currier" Copyrighted lower center "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1855 by N. Currier in the Clerk's office of the Southern District of N.Y." Inscribed bottom center "New York, Published by N. Currier 152 Nassau Street" Framed to conservation standards using silk-lined 100 percent rag matting and Museum Glass with a gold gilded liner, all housed in a stained wood moulding. Nathaniel Currier was a tall introspective man with a melancholy nature. He could captivate people with his piercing stare or charm them with his sparkling blue eyes. Nathaniel was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27th, 1813, the second of four children. His parents, Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, were distant cousins who lived a humble yet spartan life. When Nathaniel was eight years old, tragedy struck. Nathaniel’s father unexpectedly passed away leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family. In addition to their mother, Nathaniel and Lorenzo had to care for six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles. Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family, and at fifteen, he started what would become a life-long career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton. A Bavarian gentleman named Alois Senefelder invented lithography just 30 years prior to young Nat Currier’s apprenticeship. While under the employ of the brothers Pendleton, Nat was taught the art of lithography by the firm’s chief printer, a French national named Dubois, who brought the lithography trade to America. Lithography involves grinding a piece of limestone flat and smooth then drawing in mirror image on the stone with a special grease pencil. After the image is completed, the stone is etched with a solution of aqua fortis leaving the greased areas in slight relief. Water is then used to wet the stone and greased-ink is rolled onto the raised areas. Since grease and water do not mix, the greased-ink is repelled by the moisture on the stone and clings to the original grease pencil lines. The stone is then placed in a press and used as a printing block to impart black on white images to paper. In 1833, now twenty-years old and an accomplished lithographer, Nat Currier left Boston and moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M.E.D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer. With the promise of good money, Currier hired on to help Brown prepare lithographic stones of scientific images for the American Journal of Sciences and Arts. When Nat completed the contract work in 1834, he traveled to New York City to work once again for his mentor John Pendleton, who was now operating his own shop located at 137 Broadway. Soon after the reunion, Pendleton expressed an interest in returning to Boston and offered to sell his print shop to Currier. Young Nat did not have the financial resources to buy the shop, but being the resourceful type he found another local printer by the name of Stodart. Together they bought Pendleton’s business. The firm ‘Currier & Stodart’ specialized in "job" printing. They produced many different types of printed items, most notably music manuscripts for local publishers. By 1835, Stodart was frustrated that the business was not making enough money and he ended the partnership, taking his investment with him. With little more than some lithographic stones, and a talent for his trade, twenty-two year old Nat Currier set up shop in a temporary office at 1 Wall Street in New York City. He named his new enterprise ‘N. Currier, Lithographer’ Nathaniel continued as a job printer and duplicated everything from music sheets to architectural plans. He experimented with portraits, disaster scenes and memorial prints, and any thing that he could sell to the public from tables in front of his shop. During 1835 he produced a disaster print Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of the 15th of May 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives. The public had a thirst for newsworthy events, and newspapers of the day did not include pictures. By producing this print, Nat gave the public a new way to “see” the news. The print sold reasonably well, an important fact that was not lost on Currier. Nat met and married Eliza Farnsworth in 1840. He also produced a print that same year titled Awful Conflagration of the Steamboat Lexington in Long Island Sound on Monday Evening, January 18, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence over One Hundred Persons Perished. This print sold out very quickly, and Currier was approached by an enterprising publication who contracted him to print a single sheet addition of their paper, the New York Sun. This single page paper is presumed to be the first illustrated newspaper ever published. The success of the Lexington print launched his career nationally and put him in a position to finally lift his family up. In 1841, Nat and Eliza had their first child, a son they named Edward West Currier. That same year Nat hired his twenty-one year old brother Charles and taught him the lithography trade, he also hired his artistically inclined brother Lorenzo to travel out west and make sketches of the new frontier as material for future prints. Charles worked for the firm on and off over the years, and invented a new type of lithographic crayon which he patented and named the Crayola. Lorenzo continued selling sketches to Nat for the next few years. In 1843, Nat and Eliza had a daughter, Eliza West Currier, but tragedy struck in early 1847 when their young daughter died from a prolonged illness. Nat and Eliza were grief stricken, and Eliza, driven by despair, gave up on life and passed away just four months after her daughter’s death. The subject of Nat Currier’s artwork changed following the death of his wife and daughter, and he produced many memorial prints and sentimental prints during the late 1840s. The memorial prints generally depicted grief stricken families posed by gravestones (the stones were left blank so the purchasers could fill in the names of the dearly departed). The sentimental prints usually depicted idealized portraits of women and children, titled with popular Christian names of the day. Late in 1847, Nat Currier married Lura Ormsbee, a friend of the family. Lura was a self-sufficient woman, and she immediately set out to help Nat raise six-year-old Edward and get their house in order. In 1849, Lura delivered a son, Walter Black Currier, but fate dealt them a blow when young Walter died one year later. While Nat and Lura were grieving the loss of their new son, word came from San Francisco that Nat’s brother Lorenzo had also passed away from a brief illness. Nat sank deeper into his natural quiet melancholy. Friends stopped by to console the couple, and Lura began to set an extra place at their table for these unexpected guests. She continued this tradition throughout their lives. In 1852, Charles introduced a friend, James Merritt Ives, to Nat and suggested he hire him as a bookkeeper. Jim Ives was a native New Yorker born in 1824 and raised on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital where his father was employed as superintendent. Jim was a self-trained artist and professional bookkeeper. He was also a plump and jovial man, presenting the exact opposite image of his new boss. Jim Ives met Charles Currier through Caroline Clark, the object of Jim’s affection. Caroline’s sister Elizabeth was married to Charles, and Caroline was a close friend of the Currier family. Jim eventually proposed marriage to Caroline and solicited an introduction to Nat Currier, through Charles, in hopes of securing a more stable income to support his future wife. Ives quickly set out to improve and modernize his new employer’s bookkeeping methods. He reorganized the firm’s sizable inventory, and used his artistic skills to streamline the firm’s production methods. By 1857, Nathaniel had become so dependent on Jims’ skills and initiative that he offered him a full partnership in the firm and appointed him general manager. The two men chose the name ‘Currier & Ives’ for the new partnership, and became close friends. Currier & Ives produced their prints in a building at 33 Spruce Street where they occupied the third, fourth and fifth floors. The third floor was devoted to the hand operated printing presses that were built by Nat's cousin, Cyrus Currier, at his shop Cyrus Currier & Sons in Newark, NJ. The fourth floor found the artists, lithographers and the stone grinders at work. The fifth floor housed the coloring department, and was one of the earliest production lines in the country. The colorists were generally immigrant girls, mostly German, who came to America with some formal artistic training. Each colorist was responsible for adding a single color to a print. As a colorist finished applying their color, the print was passed down the line to the next colorist to add their color. The colorists worked from a master print displayed above their table, which showed where the proper colors were to be placed. At the end of the table was a touch up artist who checked the prints for quality, touching-in areas that may have been missed as it passed down the line. During the Civil War, demand for prints became so great that coloring stencils were developed to speed up production. Although most Currier & Ives prints were colored in house, some were sent out to contract artists. The rate Currier & Ives paid these artists for coloring work was one dollar per one hundred small folios (a penny a print) and one dollar per one dozen large folios. Currier & Ives also offered uncolored prints to dealers, with instructions (included on the price list) on how to 'prepare the prints for coloring.' In addition, schools could order uncolored prints from the firm’s catalogue to use in their painting classes. Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives attracted a wide circle of friends during their years in business. Some of their more famous acquaintances included Horace Greeley, Phineas T. Barnum, and the outspoken abolitionists Rev. Henry Ward, and John Greenleaf Whittier (the latter being a cousin of Mr. Currier). Nat Currier and Jim Ives described their business as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures" and produced many categories of prints. These included Disaster Scenes, Sentimental Images, Sports, Humor, Hunting Scenes, Politics, Religion, City and Rural Scenes, Trains, Ships, Fire Fighters, Famous Race Horses, Historical Portraits, and just about any other topic that satisfied the general public's taste. In all, the firm produced in excess of 7500 different titles, totaling over one million prints produced from 1835 to 1907. Nat Currier retired in 1880, and signed over his share of the firm to his son Edward. Nat died eight years later at his summer home 'Lion’s Gate' in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Jim Ives remained active in the firm until his death in 1895, when his share of the firm passed to his eldest son, Chauncey. In 1902, faced will failing health from the ravages of Tuberculosis, Edward Currier sold his share of the firm to Chauncey Ives...

Archival pigment print Hand printed by Sarah Hadley on Canson Baryta Photo paper Hadley's photographs have been exhibited at the Milan Photo Fair (Italy)...

Georg Garbe (19th Century) "Alpine River Landscape" This captivating 19th-century oil painting on canvas by Georg Garbe presents a breathtaking Alpine landscape, featuring a rushing ...

Artist: Anthony Hamilton (British-French, 1645-1719) Title: "Susan, Lady Belasyse" (Plate 45) Portfolio: Memoirs of Grammont Year: 1808 (First edition) Medium: Original Stipple Engra...

Daniel Ludwig. Residue of Yesterday- this work of art is an original oil painting on linen. Size: H:76 cm x W:61 cm Daniel Ludwig is an American figurative artist who lives and wor...

This is an original unique oil painting by the artist. Bernard Pothast was born on 30th November, 1882 in Hal, Belgium. He studied painting at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam between ...

Artist: Alvar Title: From Barcelona Suite Year: 1979 Medium: Color lithograph with embossing Edition: Numberd 145/185 in pencil Paper: Arches Image siz...

This is a hand-colored aquatint and engraving entitled "Part of the New City of Alexandria, with the Light House", published in London by R. Bowyer from 1802-1805. The print was crea...

MARIANO ALONSO PÉREZ Spanish, 1857 - 1930 ELEGANT FIGURES SEATED IN A PARK signed, located and dated "Alonso Pérez, Paris ´91" (lower right) oil o...

Ca. 1820 Portrait of a Woman. Léon Cogniet (1794-1880, Paris), attributed. French school of 19th century. Tecnicque: oils on canvas. Dimensions: 70cm x 61cm 20th century wooden frame. Old attribution to Léon Cogniet (1794-1880, Paris) is inscribed on the wooden frame. Portrait of the restoration period, post Napoleonic wars. Stylistically the painting is found in the transition period from the late Empire period to the beginning of Romanticism. The new artistic trends can be seen in the increased naturalism, representation of the landscape/nature, in the contrasts, and in a greater emotionality of the person represented. Detailed but loose is the way to describe the winter dress...

This artwork titled "Strawberies" c.1985, published 1996 is a color off set lithograph by British/American artist Pati Bannister, 1929-2013. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 656/950 in pencil by the artist. Published by Masters Publishing INC, New York. The image size is 16.5 x 21 inches, sheet size is 22.25 x 26 inches. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Pati Bannister was born in Highgate, England, overlooking London in 1929. Growing up, both of her parents were artists. Her mother painted watercolor landscapes, while her father painted portraits. To help further her natural talents, she took art lessons as a young girl and ultimately went to work for J. Arthur Rank, the movie maker, as an animator.​ At 22 years old, she came to the United States as a governess for a family in Connecticut. Later she became a flight attendant in Florida where she met her future husband, Glynn. Little did she know, he would become the strongest influence in her life as he inspired her to pursue and share her artistic abilities with the public. ​In 1958, Pati and Glynn moved to New Orleans and she started painting portraits in Jackson Square. Eventually, she opened two art galleries located in the French Quarter. In the late 1960's, they moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast...

Elegant still life with calla lilies and amaryllis by an unknown artist. Completed in a classical style, two calla lilies and two amaryllis flowers sit in a vase with Chinese designs...

Trees & Cottage in the English Countryside by 20th Century British Landscape Artist, James Wright Signed, Original, Oil on Canvas, housed in a beautiful ornate gold frame. Provenanc...

Bernard Blommers 1845 – The Hague – 1914 Dutch Painter 'First Steps' Signature: signed lower right 'B/Blommers' Medium: oil on canvas, ca. 1865 Dimensions: image size 56,5 x 76,5 c...

Artist: Alva Studios Title: Venus Year: 1928 Medium: Bronze Sculpture Size: 17 in. x 7 in. x 5 in. (43.18 cm x 17.78 cm x 12.7 cm)

Fur Trapper in Winter - Portrait in Oil on Canvas Majestic full length portrait of a fur trapper standing in the snow by John Pieron. A man stands an...

Mid 19th Century oil on canvas portrait of an Italian brigand, unsigned, in painted wood and gilt frame. The painting is a fine and fascinating rendition with plenty of wonderful character and detail to the costume, accessories, landscape and seascape. Very atmospheric and imposing much like the character it portrays. There is a trade stamp to the back of the canvas for the Paris firm of Susse Freres. The canvas is on a fine quality stretcher with 'keys'. There is an artist's name or title written on the top of the rear stretcher (see photo). Bands of brigands who populated the hills of southern Italy were steady fodder for the Romantic imagination, and their exploits were reported both factually, fancifully and artistically The painting dates from a period when France, under its then leader Napoleon III, was involved in the conflicts in the Italian states and the unification and eventual creation of the nation of Italy. An earlier and similar portrait exists of the infamous brigand Mazzocchi by Achille-Etna Michallony . Léon Cogniet...

This Bronze sculpture, by the French Art Deco/Art Nouveau artist Affortunato Gory (d. 1925) , is a beautiful moment of three putti joyously dancing together. Their arms are joined a...

Gustave WAPPERS (Attributed to) Anvers, 1803 - Paris, 1874 Oil on panel Trace of monogram lower right 42.5 x 31.5 cm (59.5 x 49.5 cm with the frame) XIXth century frame in carved woo...

Augustin BADER (active between 1830 and 1860) Oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm (51.5 x 59.5 cm with the frame) Signed lower left "Bader" Old stamp on the verso "Par Augustin Bader / à Fribur...

Many of you clicking on this drawing are probably doing so because you know of Ellsworth Woodward, who with his brother William Woodward around the turn of the 20th century sparked an arts renaissance in the South, the arts and culture in general having been mostly moribund since the dispiriting defeat experienced in the Civil War. I won't bog you down with lots of detail here since all you have to do is Google his name to bring up a wealth of information about him. He is most famous for his leadership of the arts program at Newcomb College in New Orleans, and its famous Newcomb Pottery...

Attributed to Eugène Delacroix (Saint-Maurice 1798 – Paris 1863) Portrait of a Man Wearing a Frock Coat Oil on canvas, 75 x 60 cm (29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in) Signed Provenance: Private ...

A. GUILLAUME (Active in the 1830s) Watercolor on paper 32.5 x 47 cm (60 x 74.5 cm with frame) Signed and dated lower left (on the rock) “A. Guill. / 1838 » Beautiful 19th century fra...

"Tender Moments" is an original oil painting by the renowned artist Pino Daeni. Measuring 30x24 inches, this piece embodies the essence of Romantic Impressionism, inviting viewers to...

Antique Oil Painting on Metal – 19th Century Miniature Artist: Unidentified Medium: Oil on Metal Dimensions: Framed: 19 x 17 cm Artwork: 10 x 6 cm Style: Classical / Romanticism / M...

Napoleon a Bautzen Lithograph, 1822 Signed in the stone (see photo) From: Arnault, A. V. Vie Politique et Militaire de Napoleon (120 plates) Published, Paris, Librairie Historiquem 1...

A. Lesueur French 19ème siècle Les Mille Et Une Nuits – One Thousand & One Nights, 1892 Charcoal on paper heightened with white. Signed & dated 1892 lower right. Image size 23.6 inc...

Unidentified Artist (19th Century) "Winter Wonderland" (1885) This charming 19th-century oil painting captures a winter landscape, depicting three figures trudging through the snow, engaged in animated conversation. The scene is set against a serene rural backdrop, where bare trees and a distant village silhouette convey the stark beauty of winter. The soft glow of the sky, transitioning from warm hues to cool whites, enhances the tranquil yet brisk atmosphere of a cold winter’s day. Plot & Interpretation The three travelers appear to be peasants or laborers, possibly returning home or embarking on a journey. Their layered winter clothing, fur hats, and backpacks suggest they are seasoned wanderers or workers, braving the elements. The gesturing figure in the middle seems to be engaged in storytelling or giving directions, adding a sense of movement and interaction. The snow-covered ground and delicate shadows create depth, emphasizing the hardship and resilience of rural life in the 19th century. Materials & Condition Medium: Oil on canvas Framed Dimensions: 47 x 46 cm Canvas Dimensions: 24 x 34 cm Frame: Ornate giltwood frame, enhancing the painting’s classical aesthetic Condition: Well-preserved with minor age-related patina, in line with its 1885 dating Historical Context & Artistic Style Likely influenced by Northern European realism, particularly Russian, German, or Scandinavian schools that depicted harsh winters and rural peasant life. Comparable to the works of Adolf von Meckel, Vasily Perov, or Carl...

Adolf Luben (1837–1905) "Mother and Child in a Countryside Setting" This charming 19th-century oil painting on canvas by Adolf Luben captures a heartwarming rural scene, depicting a...

Tree Study & Field in the English Countryside by 20th Century British Landscape Artist, James Wright Signed, Original, Oil on Canvas, housed in a beautiful ornate gold frame. Proven...

Franz Bergmann, Austrian (1861 -1936) - Arab Man with Three Monkeys, Year: circa 1900, Medium: Bronze sculpture, Austria inscribed on base, Size: 3.5 x 6.5 x 5 in. (8.89 x 16.51 x...

This artwork titled "Peaches" 1996 is a color off set lithograph by British/American artist Pati Bannister, 1929-2013. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 548/950 in pencil by the artist. Published by Masters Publishing INC, New York. The image size is 17.5 x 21 inches, sheet size is 23.5 x 26 inches. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Pati Bannister was born in Highgate, England, overlooking London in 1929. Growing up, both of her parents were artists. Her mother painted watercolor landscapes, while her father painted portraits. To help further her natural talents, she took art lessons as a young girl and ultimately went to work for J. Arthur Rank, the movie maker, as an animator.​ At 22 years old, she came to the United States as a governess for a family in Connecticut. Later she became a flight attendant in Florida where she met her future husband, Glynn. Little did she know, he would become the strongest influence in her life as he inspired her to pursue and share her artistic abilities with the public. ​In 1958, Pati and Glynn moved to New Orleans and she started painting portraits in Jackson Square. Eventually, she opened two art galleries located in the French Quarter. In the late 1960's, they moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast...

Franz Bergmann, Austrian (1861 -1936) - Boy on Persian Rug, Year: circa 1900, Medium: Cold painted Bronze sculpture, stamp signed on bottom, Size: 4 x 7 x 7.5 in. (10.16 x 17.78 x...

19th century French school Oil on canvas 33 x 41 cm (53 x 45 cm with the frame) Original canvas with the stamp of the merchant "Vallé & Bourniche / Successeurs de Bellot" active in P...

Portrait of rebecca at the fountain - I. Di Matteo Italia 1998 - Oil on canvas cm. 80x60 This magnificent painting by I. De Matteo is the rein...

Prelude de Lohengrin (2e planche) (The appearance of the Holy Grail) Lithograph, 1898 Signed and dated in the stone lower left (see photo) Printed on chine collee paper Condition...

Franz Bergmann, Austrian (1861 -1936) - Two Cats Dancing, Year: circa 1900, Medium: Cold painted Bronze sculpture, Size: 2.25 x 1.5 x 1.5 in. (5.72 x 3.81 x 3.81 cm)

Venetian School of the 19th Century. "Venice Lagoon." Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 34 x 79 cm; 53 x 98 cm (frame). Romantic view of the Venetian lagoon, wrapped in the melancholy of a...

19th Century French School, Studies of horses and small scenes, pencil on paper 14.5 x 21 cm Framed : 25.5 x 32.7 cm This study sheet, which brings together studies of horses and...

Edwin Lord Weeks. American ( b.1849 - d.1903 ). Egyptian Buffalo And Farmers, Egypt. Watercolor On Paper. Monogram Lower Right. Image size 5.1 inches x 8.3 inches ( 13cm x 21cm ). F...

French School 19 th Century Portrait of a young man Signed (signature not deciphered) on the lower right Pencil, black chalk and heightenings of white and red chalks on paper Oval vi...

French Romantic school of the 19th Century The artist's inspiration Oil on canvas transferred on wood It is in good condition, but the material has irregularities due to the canvas...

A very fine museum quality Italian 19th-20th century life-size marble sculpture titled "Searching for Love" by Vito Pardo (Italian, born in Venice in 1872) Depicting a semi-nude life...

Little Devils Bridge over the Russ, above Alt Dorft Swiss From: Liber Studiorum Etching and mezzotint, 1809 Signed in the plate by JMW Turner and Charles Turner who applied the mezz...

Expressive depiction of Christ being aided by Simon of Cyrene by an unknown artist, Italiante School style of 17th-century Northern European painters principally Dutch, c.1700s-1800s. This piece is composed of oil on linen, laid down on fiberboard. Presented in a giltwood frame. Image size: 42"H x 33"W. Italianate painters, group of 17th-century northern European painters, principally Dutch, who traveled in Italy and, consciously adopting the style of landscape painting that they found there, incorporated Italian models and motifs into their own works. Chief among the Italianates were Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Andries and Jan Both, Nicolaes Berchem, and Jan Asselijn...

A beautiful composition by the great British artist Henry Herbert La Thangue of a girl reading in warm red tones by lamplight. The details of the work are as follows: HENRY HERBER...

Antique Bronze Miniature Barnyard Scene (Cow, Sheep & Goat) Christophe Fratin (France, 1801-1864) Sand cast bronze 5 3/4 x 4 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches Highly refined and sensitively modeled miniature bronze representing a small herd of cattle, sheep and cattle on the terrace. Despite its small size, this bronze offers a complete view of a small herd of livestock: a bull is lying in a landscape near a sheep and a goat climbing a tree above a rocky mound. Here we find the skillful hand of the animalier sculptor Christophe Fratin (French, 1801-1864), immensely famous in the 19th century for his thoughtfully crafted animal...

Philip Richard Morris. English ( b.1836 - d.1902 ). The Cloaked Shepherdess. Watercolor On Paper. Signed Lower Left. Image size 14 inches x 9.3 inches ( 35.5cm x 23.5cm ). Frame siz...

Willem De Klerk 1800 – Dordrecht – 1876 Dutch Painter 'A winter landscape with an ox-cart on a wooded road near a village' Signature: signed lower left ‘W. de Klerk f’ Medium: oi...

Unidentified Artist (1929) "Woman with an Umbrella Sitting on a Bench" This elegant 1929 oil painting on canvas presents a refined portrait of a fashionable woman seated on a park be...

Katie Eleanor, "Cleansing a Shrike (Blackbird’s Birdbath)", 2018 Handcoloured portrait of a bird-like spirit, immobilised in marble, cleansing in a sprin...

Sorry for the reflections on the glass, but I didn't want to take this lovely frame apart. The close-ups are much better. This is a highly accomplished, superbly detailed watercolor of a the facade of a building in Rome, depicting Corinthian columns, a frieze and a free-standing tributary sculpture above. Image area itself is 10.5" x 6.25", framed size is 19.5" x 14". Matted and presented in a pretty antique wood frame that has some flaws from an apparently long history but is perfectly serviceable, as you can see. Exquisite detail, so hard to accomplish with watercolor. Came from august Houston...

An oil painting by Adolf Friedrich Harper from 1799. A rare antique painting from the romanticism era. Framed in ornate gold wood frame, signed in lower left corner. Artist: Adol...

Richard Westall, R.A. (1765-1836) Venus signed and dated ‘R. Westall 1794’ (lower right) pencil and watercolour, with white heightening image 11 ⅞ x 15 ¼ in. (30.2 x 38.7 cm.) frame 22 ⅛ x 26 in. (56.3 x 66.1 cm.) Provenance: Private Collection, UK. Venus (1794) was produced during a highly creative and defining period of Richard Westall’s career and artistic development, when from 1790-95 the ambitious young artist was sharing a house at 57 Greek Street, Soho, with his friend Sir Thomas Lawrence, the future President of the Royal Academy. Whilst lodging together, Lawrence became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1791, Westall the following year, and both were elected full-members in 1794 – the year Lawrence was appointed Painter-in-Ordinary to His Majesty King George III. Westall was to become Queen Victoria’s first Drawing Master, before her ascension to the throne. It was in this very year, 1794 - as the two young artists became Royal Academicians - that the present watercolour was executed, and it is exciting to speculate that Lawrence would have examined and given his thoughts on the work. Highly comparable to The Wallace Collection’s Nymph and cupids (c.1793, cat. P757), acquired by Francis Seymour-Conway (1777-1842), 3rd Marquess of Hertford, (who hung it in his bedroom), the mid-1790s saw Westall exhibiting and returning to similar subject-matter on a number of occasions. Two works with titles that could be applied to the present picture were exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1794 (no. 341 Nymph and Cupids) and 1795 (no. 620, A Wood–nymph and Cupids). However, a print after the watercolour, engraved by F. Screen, entitles the piece Venus. Westall is regarded as a great virtuoso watercolourist, and Venus is evidence of the young artist’s mastery of the medium. Indeed, it is unusual to find a watercolour of comparable age so well preserved, and retaining such vibrancy - the superb condition providing an insight into his exceptional brushwork and use of colour. Venus languishes luxuriously on her woodland bed, the trunk of a tree resembling a curtain, while three winged putti play beside her, seeming to gesture to someone in the woods. Cupid draws back his bow and aims an arrow of love, perhaps about to pierce the heart of a hunting nobleman, or unsuspecting woodcutter. The striking contrast between the almost luminescent nymph, with the deep, rich, luxuriant forest, gives the glade an alluring sense of mystery – perhaps an allusion to the mysteries of the heart, a pre-occupation with Romanticism, central to the emerging thought of the time. Westall can be classified as one of the great Romantic artists, and even painted Lord Byron’s portrait...

Carl Magnus Lindqvist (1884-1977) Sweden Portrait of a Young Woman (1911) oil on canvas mounted on masonite signed and dated unframed 43 x 35 cm (16.9 x 13.8 in) framed 49.5 x 41 c...

Old Barn Scene of a Farm in the English Countryside by 20th Century British Landscape Artist, James Wright. Signed, vintage original, oil on heavy grain linen, reframed in a high qu...

Josef Kugler, Austrian (1913 - 2011) - Woodlands, Year: circa 1968, Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed lower right, Size: 24.25 x 36 in. (61.6 x 91.44 cm), ...

Doorway in the Temple of Kalabshe, Nubia Original gold toned albumin photograph, c. 1862 Unsigned as is usual From: Upper Egypt and Ethiopia, c. 1862, Vol 1, (36 plates) Published by...

Italian Romantic painter (19th century) - Lady and Musketeer. 40.5 x 40.5 cm without frame, 42 x 42 cm with frame. Oil on canvas, in wooden frame (not signed). Condition report: L...

The River Barge Pen and ink on paper on laid paper, mounted in English drum mount , c. 1810 Unsigned Condition: Slight sun staining to sheet and mount in the window (see photo) Image/sheet size: 5 1/4 x 6 11/16 inches Sight: : 5-3/4 x 7-1/4" Frame: 13-3/8 x 14-3/8" Provenance: Colnaghi, London (see photo of label) David Cox (29 April 1783 – 7 June 1859) was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism. He is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters, and a major figure of the Golden age of English watercolour. Although most popularly known for his works in watercolour, he also painted over 300 works in oil towards the end of his career, now considered "one of the greatest, but least recognised, achievements of any British painter. His son, known as David Cox the Younger (1809-1885), was also a successful artist. Early life in Birmingham, 1783–1804 Cox's birthplace in Deritend, Birmingham, illustrated by Samuel Lines Cox was born on 29 April 1783 on Heath Mill Lane in Deritend, then an industrial suburb of Birmingham. His father was a blacksmith and whitesmith about whom little is known, except that he supplied components such as bayonets and barrels to the Birmingham gun trade. Cox's mother was the daughter of a farmer and miller from Small Heath to the east of Birmingham. Early biographers record that "she had had a better education than his father, and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character." Cox was initially expected to follow his father into the metal trade and take over his forge, but his lack of physical strength led his family to seek opportunities for him to develop his interest in art, which is said to have first become apparent when the young Cox started painting paper kites while recovering from a broken leg. By the late 18th century Birmingham had developed a network of private academies teaching drawing and painting, established to support the needs of the town's manufacturers of luxury metal goods, but also encouraging education in fine art, and nurturing the distinctive tradition of landscape art of the Birmingham School. Cox initially enrolled in the academy of Joseph Barber in Great Charles Street, where fellow students included the artist Charles Barber and the engraver William Radclyffe, both of whom would become important lifelong friends. At the age of about 15 Cox was apprenticed to the Birmingham painter Albert Fielder, who produced portrait miniatures and paintings for the tops of snuffboxes from his workshop at 10 Parade in the northwest of the town. Early biographers of Cox record that he left his apprenticeship after Fielder's suicide, with one reporting that Cox himself discovered his master's hanging body, but this is probably a myth as Fielder is recorded at his address in Parade as late as 1825. At some time during mid-1800 Cox was given work by William Macready the elder at the Birmingham Theatre, initially as an assistant grinding colours and preparing canvases for the scene painters, but from 1801 painting scenery himself and by 1802 leading his own team of assistants and being credited in plays' publicity. London, 1804–1814 In 1804 Cox was promised work by the theatre impresario Philip Astley and moved to London, taking lodgings in 16 Bridge Row, Lambeth. Although he was unable to get employment at Astley's Amphitheatre it is likely that he had already decided to try to establish himself as a professional artist, and apart from a few private commissions for painting scenery his focus over the next few years was to be on painting and exhibiting watercolours. While living in London, Cox married his landlord's daughter, Mary Agg and the couple moved to Dulwich in 1808. David Cox Travellers on a Path, pencil and brown wash. In 1805 he made his first of many trips to Wales, with Charles Barber, his earliest dated watercolours are from this year. Throughout his lifetime he made numerous sketching tours to the Home Counties, North Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Devon. Cox exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1805. His paintings never reached high prices, so he earned his living mainly as a drawing master. His first pupil, Colonel the Hon.H. Windsor (the future Earl of Plymouth) engaged him in 1808, Cox went on to acquire several other aristocratic and titled pupils. He also went on to write several books, including: Ackermanns' New Drawing Book (1809); A Series of Progressive Lessons (1811); Treatise on Landscape Painting (1813); and Progressive Lessons on Landscape (1816). The ninth and last edition of his series Progressive Lessons, was published in 1845. By 1810 he was elected President of the Associated Artists in Water Colour. In 1812, following the demise of the Associated Artists, he was elected as associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colour (the old Water Colour Society). He was elected a Member of the Society in 1813, and exhibited there every year (except 1815 and 1817) until his death. Hereford, 1814–1827 In the summer of 1813 Cox was appointed as the drawing master of the Royal Military College in Farnham, Surrey, but he resigned shortly afterwards, finding little sympathy with the atmosphere of a military institution. Soon after that he applied to a newspaper advertisement for a position as drawing master for Miss Crouchers' School for Young Ladies in Hereford and in Autumn 1814 moved to the town with his family. Cox taught at the school in Widemarsh Street until 1819, his substantial salary of £100 per year requiring only two-day's work per week, allowing time for painting and the taking of private pupils. Cox's reputation as both a painter and a teacher had been building over previous years, as indicated by his election as a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours and his inclusion in John Hassell's 1813 book Aqua Pictura, which claimed to present works by "all of the most approved water coloured draftsmen". The depression that accompanied the end of the Napoleonic Wars had caused a contraction in the art market, however, and by 1814 Cox had been very short of money, requiring a loan from one of his pupils to pay even for the move to Hereford. Despite its financial advantages and its proximity to the scenery of North Wales and the Wye Valley, the move to Hereford marked a retreat in terms of his career as a painter: he sent few works to the annual exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours during his first years away from London and not until 1823 would he again contribute more than 20 pictures. Between 1823 and 1826 he had Joseph Murray Ince as a pupil. London, 1827–1841 He made his first trip to the Continent, to Belgium and the Netherlands in 1826 and subsequently moved to London the following year. He exhibited for the first time with the Birmingham Society of Artists in 1829, and with the Liverpool Academy in 1831. In 1839, two of Cox's watercolours were bought from the Old Water Colour Society exhibition by the Marquis of Conynha for Queen Victoria. Birmingham, 1841–1859 Greenfield House in Harborne, Birmingham – where Cox lived from 1841 until his death in 1859 . In May 1840 Cox wrote to one of his Birmingham friends: "I am making preparations to sketch in oil, and also to paint, and it is my intention to spend most of my time in Birmingham for the purpose of practice". Cox had been considering a return to painting in oils since 1836 and in 1839 had taken lessons in oil painting from William James Müller, to whom he had been introduced by mutual friend George Arthur Fripp. Hostility between the Society of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Academy made it difficult for an artist to be recognised for work in both watercolour and oil in London, however, and it is likely that Cox would have preferred to explore this new medium in the more supportive environment of his home town. By the early 1840s his income from sales of his watercolours was sufficient to allow him to abandon his work as a drawing master, and in June 1841 he moved with his wife to Greenfield House in Harborne, then a village on Birmingham's south western outskirts. It was this move that would enable the higher levels of freedom and experimentation that were to characterise his later work. The elderly Cox pictured by Samuel Bellin in 1855. In Harborne, Cox established a steady routine – working in watercolour in the morning and oils in the afternoon. He would visit London every spring to attend the major exhibitions, followed by one or more sketching excursions, continuing the pattern that he had established in the 1830s. From 1844 these tours evolved into a yearly trip to Betws-y-Coed in North Wales to work outdoors in both oil and watercolour, gradually becoming the focus for an annual summer artists colony that continued until 1856 with Cox as its "presiding genius". Cox's experience of trying to exhibit his oils in London was short and unsuccessful: in 1842 he made his only submission to the Society of British Artists; one oil painting was exhibited at each of the British Institution and the Royal Academy in 1843; and two oil paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 – the last that would be exhibited in London during his lifetime. Cox showed regularly at the Birmingham Society of Arts and its successor, the Birmingham Society of Artists, becoming a member in 1842. Cox suffered a stroke on 12 June 1853 that temporarily paralysed him, and permanently affected his eyesight, memory and coordination. By 1857 however, his eyesight had deteriorated. An exhibition of his work was arranged in 1858 by the Conversazione Society Hampstead, and in 1859 a retrospective exhibition was held at the German Gallery Bond Street, London. Cox died several months later. He was buried in the churchyard of St Peters, Harborne, Birmingham, under a chestnut tree, alongside his wife Mary. Work Early work In the spring of 1811 Cox made a small number of notable works in oils during a visit to Hastings with his family. It is not known why he didn't continue working in this medium at the time, but the five known surviving examples were described in 1969 as "surely some of the most brilliant examples of the genre in England". Mature work Cox reached artistic maturity after his move to Hereford in 1814. Although only two major watercolours can confidently be traced to the period between Cox's arrival in the town and the end of the decade, both of these – Butcher's Row, Hereford of 1815 and Lugg Meadows, near Hereford of 1817 – mark advances on his earlier work. Later work Cox's later work produced after his move to Birmingham in 1841 was marked by simplification, abstraction and a stripping down of detail. His art of the period combined the breadth and weight characteristic of the earlier English watercolour school, together with a boldness and freedom of expression comparable to later impressionism. His concern with capturing the fleeting nature of weather, atmosphere and light was similar to that of John Constable, but Cox stood apart from the older painter's focus on capturing material detail, instead employing a high degree of generalisation and a focus on overall effect. The quest for character over precision in representing nature was an established characteristic of the Birmingham School of landscape artists with which Cox had been associated early in his life, and as early as 1810 Cox's work had been criticised for its "sketchiness of finish" and "cloudy confusion of objects", which were held to betray "the coarseness of scene-painting". During the 1840s and 1850s Cox took this "peculiar manner" to new extremes, incorporating the techniques of the sketch into his finished works to a far greater degree. Cox's watercolour technique of the 1840s was sufficiently different from his earlier methods to need explanation to his son in 1842, despite the fact that his son had been helping him teach and paint since 1827. The materials used for his later works in watercolour also differed from his earlier periods: he used black chalk instead of graphite pencil as his primary drawing medium, and the rough and absorbent "Scotch" wrapping paper for which he became well-known – both of these were related to his development of a rougher and freer style. Influence and legacy By the 1840s Cox, alongside Peter De Wint and Copley Fielding, had become recognised as one of the leading figures of the English landscape watercolour style of the first half of the 19th century. This judgement was complicated by reaction to the rougher and bolder style of Cox's later Birmingham work, which was widely ignored or condemned. While by this time De Wint and Fielding were essentially continuing in a long-established tradition, Cox was creating a new one. A group of young artists working in Cox's watercolour style emerged well before his death, including William Bennett, David Hall McKewan and Cox's son David Cox Jr. By 1850 Bennett in particular had become recognised as "perhaps the most distinguished among the landscape painters" for his Cox-like vigorous and decisive style. Such early followers concentrated on the example of Cox's more moderate earlier work and steered clear of what were then seen as the excesses of Cox's later years. During a period dominated by sleek and detailed picturesque landscape, however, they were still condemned by publications such as The Spectator as "the 'blottesque' school", and failed to establish themselves as a cohesive movement. John Ruskin in 1857 condemned the work of the Society of Painters in Water-colours as "a kind of potted art, of an agreeable flavour, suppliable and taxable as a patented commodity", excluding only the late work of Cox, about which he wrote "there is not any other landscape which comes near these works of David Cox in simplicity or seriousness". An 1881 book, A Biography of David Cox: With Remarks on His Works and Genius, was based on a manuscript by Cox's friend William Hall, edited and expanded by John Thackray Bunce, editor of the Birmingham Daily Post. There are two Blue Plaque memorials commemorating him at 116 Greenfield Road, Harborne, Birmingham, and at 34 Foxley Road, Kennington, London, SW9, where he lived from 1827. It can also be seen at the David Cox exhibition in Birmingham. His pupils included Birmingham architectural artist, Allen Edward...