David Bates b.1840

David Bates, Rural Landscape With Thatched Cottage, Country Track & Pond

1871

This charming mid-19th-century oil painting depicts a river landscape with a thatched cottage, boatmen, and windmill. It’s reminiscent of works by English artist Edward Williams (178...

This idyllic late 19th-century oil painting by English artist Edward William Cooke RA (1811-1880) depicts a west-country cove with two cottages, donkeys, figures, and fishing boats. Cooke was a highly renowned painter of marine scenes and landscapes who exhibited extensively at London’s Royal Academy. From our elevated vantage point, the view extends between two quaint cottages and across the beach before sweeping around the sandy coastline. Crystalline waters lap the shore, where moored craft rest. It’s an accomplished rendering of a challenging composition. It’s enhanced by trees, which essentially ‘frame’ the right side, while a wooded track provides interest on the left. Cooke was a keen admirer of the Dutch old masters, and the spirit of the Golden Age underpins this splendid work. In diaries, he recorded how he travelled by donkey to access elevated spots in the southwest, so it’s conceivable that he did so here. In his catalogue raisonné, it lists a work from the same year titled ‘Bay with Donkeys’. Born in Pentonville, London, Cooke was raised in the company of accomplished artists as both his father, George Cooke (1781-1834), and his uncle, William Bernard Cooke (1778-1855), were engravers. As such, they were associated with a circle of Victorian painters who aided Cooke’s early development. These included the highly regarded marine painter Clarkson Frederick Stanfield RA RBA (1793-1867), who provided frequent advice and inspiration. Indeed, as a teenager, Cooke produced numerous drawings after Stanfield’s works. A precocious talent, by the age of nine, he was already displaying an advanced understanding of engraving, particularly for ships, coupled with a natural, seemingly in-built skill as a draughtsman. Many of his early drawings depict pastoral landscapes after the masters, such as Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683), Paulus Potter (1625-1654), and Karel Dujardin (1626-1678). In an extraordinary turn of events, in 1820, his advanced abilities led to his first commission when he provided botanical illustrations for John Loudon's 'Encyclopaedia of Plants’. These were followed by drawings published in the 'Botanical Cabinet...

This buoyant late 19th-century oil painting by Danish artist Niels Frederik Schiøttz-Jensen (1855-1941) depicts a coastal view in Capri, Italy, with a travelling family. Schiøttz-Jen...

This mid-19th-century oil painting attributed to Scottish artist William Clark of Greenock (1803-1883) depicts a fully-rigged British frigate sailing off Yarmouth and The Needles, Is...

This original and unique detailed landscape scene of a rural cottage by a stream is by the artist O. J. Clark, English School. Signed lower right, with the cottage scene dated ’85 and is over 100 years old. Clark was an English Landscape painter...

Interesting view of the Pool of London, an area known on the Thames near Tower Bridge where freight was loaded and unloaded from the earliest times of the City of London through the ...

Vibrant coastal village scene by Ramoz (Ramos) (20th Century). The setting sun casts an orange glow across a coastal village. Two people carry baskets on their heads as they unload a...

Softly rendered European street scene by an unknown artist (20th Century). A group of well-dressed women are standing at the side of the road, near some trees. To the right and in the background, a horse an carriage is passing by. The scene is executed with small, circular strokes, giving the piece a soft yet dynamic feel. Signed in the lower right corner. Presented in an ornate gilded frame...