Shelli Langdale More Art

This 15.75" x 19.5" x 1.5" oil paint on panel work by Wisconsin-native artist Arthur E. Schneider depicts what appears to be a family frolicking around a field that overlooks a large...

A Rare Jacobean Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Wheeler (née Cole), 1623 Attributed to Cornelius Johnson (1593–1661) This remarkably rare early oil on panel, presented by Titan Fine Art, has emerged as far more than an anonymous “Portrait of a Lady.” Preserved in outstanding condition—its surface retaining exceptional clarity in the lace and textiles—it has only recently been reunited with the identity of its sitter: Elizabeth Cole (1607–1670), later Lady Elizabeth Wheeler, a Westminster gentlewoman whose later life brought her into intimate royal service as laundress for His Majesty’s person. That combination—high quality, uncommon survival, a newly identified sitter, and a life that intersects directly with the last acts of Charles I—places this portrait in a category of genuine rarity. It is not simply a beautiful Jacobean likeness; it is a rediscovered historical document - legible and compelling. The sitter is presented half-length against a dark ground, enclosed within a painted sculpted oval surround that functions like an architectural frame. This device, fashionable in the 1620s, concentrates the viewer’s attention and heightens the sense of social presentation: the sitter appears both physically and symbolically “set apart,” as if viewed through a refined aperture. The portrait’s immediate power, however, lies in the costume—an ensemble of striking modernity for c. 1623 and rendered with a precision that survives with remarkable crispness. She wears a deep green gown—a fitted overgown with open sleeves—over a finely embroidered linen jacket (a stiffened bodice/waistcoat garment). The sleeves form pronounced “wings” at the shoulder, a structurally assertive fashion detail of the early 1620s that enlarges the silhouette and signals sophistication. Beneath the green overlayer, the white linen jacket is richly ornamented in gilt embroidery. The goldwork is arranged as scrolling foliate forms—looping, curling tendrils punctuated by seed-like stippling—organised into balanced compartments across the bodice and sleeves. The motifs read as stylised botanical forms with rounded fruit-like terminals and leaf elements: not literal naturalism, but controlled abundance. The technique is described with extraordinary intelligence, mimicking couched metallic thread through patterned, “stitched” marks, while tiny dots and short dashes create a lively tactile shimmer. This embroidered jacket sits above a newly fashionable high-waisted, sheer apron or overskirt. The translucent fabric falls in soft vertical folds and is articulated with narrow lace-edged bands, giving the skirt a crisp rhythm of alternating sheer and patterned strips. At the neck, a fine ruff frames the face: a disciplined structure of pleated linen finished with delicate lace. Draped diagonally across the torso are long gold chains, painted to suggest weight and metallic gleam; they function both as ornament and as a further signifier of status. The cumulative effect is controlled luxury: she is not overloaded with jewels, but clothed in textiles whose cost and craftsmanship speak unmistakably. The recent sitter’s identification rests on heraldic and genealogical analysis: the arms shown on the painting correspond to those recorded for several families in armorial sources, but when the lines of descent are tested against survival and chronology, the viable bearer by 1623 resolves to Cole, and—crucially—to the London branch. That resolution matters because it anchors the portrait to a very specific social world: London/Westminster civic gentry and Crown administration, the milieu in which portraiture served as both self-fashioning and social instrument. The recent identification of the sitter (the London Cole branch of the family) is not merely genealogical; it has direct implications for authorship. A London-based mercantile or civic-gentry family would have ready access to leading immigrant artists, familiarity with heraldic display conventions, and the means to commission oil on panel, still standard among Netherlandish-trained painters. In that context, the portrait’s age inscription and date become especially revealing. The painting states the sitter to be nineteen years of age. Yet Elizabeth Cole’s birth in 1607 suggests she would be younger if the portrait is dated as early as 1623. The key insight is that the “incorrect” age is best understood not as a mistake but as a deliberate social adjustment, a performative statement rather than a documentary one. The most persuasive explanation is strategic. Portraits of high-status unmarried women were frequently made in connection with marriage negotiations. In the early 1620s, Elizabeth’s future husband, William Wheeler, was resident abroad at Middelburg in Zeeland in the Dutch Republic. If a portrait was intended to support or facilitate a match with an educated, ambitious man—“a man of learning and letters,” —then presenting a seventeen-year-old as nineteen would subtly reposition her as more mature and more nearly a peer in age, Wheeler being around twenty-two. The portrait thus becomes an instrument of alliance, not merely a likeness: an image designed to persuade, reassure, and elevate. This reading aligns perfectly with the period’s wider conditions. The early 1620s in England were charged with anxiety and expectation: James I’s later reign was marked by court faction, diplomatic tension, and the pressures of European conflict. The so-called “art market” was inseparable from these dynamics. Portraiture flourished because it served multiple functions: it fixed lineage, advertised alliance, signalled readiness for marriage, and projected the stability of elite households in an uncertain world. For Westminster families whose power came through office, portraiture was also a declaration of belonging—proof that administrative elites possessed the cultural polish traditionally associated with older aristocratic rank. Elizabeth’s later life vindicates the portrait’s impression of steadiness. Although no record survives of her marriage ceremony to William Wheeler, wills suggest she had married him by the mid-1630s, and there are strong grounds—consistent with the portrait’s implications—for a union already in place by the early 1630s, possibly earlier. Wheeler himself rose rapidly. By 1639 he held a manor at Westbury Leigh in Wiltshire and sought letters of denization due to overseas birth, enabling him to stand as Member of Parliament for Westbury. He leased the principal manor of Westbury the following year, coinciding with his election. In government service he became Remembrancer of the Exchequer and held office across regime change, a testament to administrative skill and political pragmatism. It is Elizabeth, however, who makes this portrait exceptional. She became laundress for His Majesty’s person, responsible for the washing and oversight of the King’s personal linen—an office that, despite its domestic description, required unusual trust, discretion, and access. Her role becomes visible in 1643 when she was granted a warrant signed by the Speaker of the House of Commons to follow the King to Oxford with her servant after the outbreak of the Civil War. She continued to serve during the King’s captivity after 1646, and at Carisbrooke Castle in 1647 she and her maid were implicated in smuggling secret correspondence to and from Charles I, in service of escape plans. After the King’s failed attempt to escape in March 1648, she was removed—yet the King’s trust persisted: he was permitted to send her remaining jewels in an ivory casket...

This bright painting, done en plein air, radiates the feeling of summer. Small sailboats float daintily atop electric blue water while the surrounding land looks completely empty of ...

Francesco Albani Circle Italian Mythological Painting This important oil painting on wood depicts a subject that is very rare in the iconography of ancient mythological paintings: the birth of Erittonio. Erichthonius who succeeded Amphictyon becoming the fourth mythological king of Athens and married the naiad Praxithea who made him the father of Pandion. The extremely high quality of this very rare painting suggests that it was painted by an artist who frequented Francesco Albani's studio. The period, the mythological subject, the harmony of the colours and, above all, the sublime quality of the flesh tones all point in this direction. This artwork, never before on the market, comes from an important Italian private collection Every item of our Gallery, upon request, is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Sabrina Egidi official Expert in Italian furniture for the Chamber of Commerce of Rome and for the Rome Civil Courts. ERYTHTONIOS (᾿Ερυχϑόνιος, Erychthonios) Born of Hephaestus' love for Athena, from the breast of Ghe, who was impregnated by the god; welcomed by Athena, who placed him in a basket together with one or two snakes, entrusting him to the care of Cecrops' three daughters. Against the goddess's wishes, they opened the chest, from which emerged, according to different versions of the myth, either the child wrapped in snakes or a snake, which, in some versions, killed the girls, while in others, they threw themselves from the Acropolis in fear. Erittonio, in the form of a snake, is welcomed by Athena into her temple and curls up under the goddess's shield. Alongside this myth, of Ionian origin, are others due to the doubling of the figures of E. and Erechtheus The scene of the birth appears in figurative tradition: in a Melian terracotta relief from the early 5th century, Ghe, half-emerging, holds out the baby Erittonio. to Athena, who welcomes him in the presence of Cecrops; the same scene appears on various painted vases, such as a red-figure kölix by the Painter of Kodros, from Tarquinia, in the Berlin Museums, dating from around 440 BC, where Hephaestus also appears alongside Cecrops. A modest red-figure vase from Camiro, in the British Museum, depicts the moment when the fleeing Cecropids discover the cista, from which the infant Erittonio. emerges between two snakes, greeting Athena. The moment when the chest was opened was depicted by Phidias on the xiii and xiv S metopes of the Parthenon, where Cecrops and Pandrosus appear in the first and Erisichthon and Aglaurus with the chest uncovered in the second. A kölix in the style of the Brygos Painter in Frankfurt, on the other hand, depicts the large snake E. chasing the fleeing Cecropids towards their father's palace. Luciano (De dom., 27) recalls a painting depicting the scene of the birth and the representation of the myth in pantomime on the theatre (De salt., 39). Bibliography: Engelmann, in Roscher, cc. 1303-1308, s. v. Erichthonios; P. Jacobstahl, Die Melischen Reliefs, Berlin 1931, pp. 96-98, plate 75 a; W. Züchner, in Jahrbuch, LXV-LXVI, 1950-51, p. 200 ff., figs. 34-35; J. D. Beazley, Red-fig., p. 720; G. Becatti, Problemi fidiaci, Florence 1951, p. 22. Questo Francesco Albani (Bologna, August 17, 1578 – Bologna, October 4, 1660) was an Italian painter. Albani was born in Bologna, Papal States, in 1578. His father was a silk merchant who intended his son to go into his own trade. By the age of twelve, however, he had become an apprentice to the competent mannerist painter Denis Calvaert, in whose studio he met Guido Reni. He soon followed Reni to the so-called "Academy" run by Annibale, Agostino, and Ludovico Carracci. This studio fostered the careers of many painters of the Bolognese school, including Domenichino, Massari, Viola, Lanfranco, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi...

White's recognizable orange umbrella's are featured in this picturesque beach scene. The textures and impasto that White always masterfully applies with his palette knife are present...

encaustic on panel b. 1954, Reno Nevada Michael David is best known for his use of encaustic on large abstract paintings. A practitioner of Abstract Expressionism, David layers bees...

"Waterfall with Spray," 12 x 12 x 3/4 Inches, is a beautiful small painting of Niagara Falls, part of a larger series of 12 x 12 inch waterfall paintings as seen from various vantag...

"Waterfall with Spray and Shrubs," Oil on Panel, 12 x 12 x 3/4 inches, is a meticulously painted rendition of a waterfall on a summer day. The top half of the painting is dominate...

Info artist : Van Beers studied at the Academy in Antwerp. In 1873, he undertook a trip to London with Alexandre Struys. In 1878, Van Beers went to Paris where he worked in the stud...

Cipriano Mannucci (1882-1970) Village Landscape Oil Painting c.1927 Original oil on panel by listed artist. The painting shows an outdoor market in a small village. Oil on panel. ...

"Future Shadow" is of a scene in the woods. This scene is of no particular place, but rather his interpretation and compilation of various places he has visited. As a painter, I examine how the depiction of light contributes to our experience of paintings. The portrayal of light helps a painting to convey the atmosphere and mood of a scene, and is much of what enables a painting to convey depth and realism. Our perception of lighting features occurs largely through pathways in the brain that carry only black and white information, pathways which are distinct from areas that encode the colors and details we use to delineate specific objects. By painting in grayscale, I try to interact specifically with this region of our visual system, with the hope of conveying some of the spaciousness and emotional significance that light can imbue on scenes. Light, whether as the crisp contrast of a back-lit forest or the gray haze of an industrial landscape, is what defines a scene. Its power to communicate the feel of a place is the principle subject of my paintings. The Blue Azul Collection...

"Descending Towards Now," oil on wood painting by artist Todd Carpenter depicts a remote landscape of leafless trees being nourished by a running stream. Imagine this is a past route...