Robert Gallon

A dramatic evening sky glows with a complex hue of yellows and blues while traces of orange burn in the dark clouds overhanging the quiet scene of a simple church beside a collection...

The opposite view of this exceptional painting by Robert Gallon is held in the Lancaster Maritime Museum in Lancaster, United Kingdom; this work is painted from the opposite side, looking down the river at the mill and bridge from above the dip in the river. A work of unreal quality and detail, the finely executed landscape captures the incredible diversity of color in the foliage and forest behind the old sawmill. The rugged and aged exterior of the mill is captured perfectly, the worn stone beautifully rendered under the crackling wooden roof shingles. The horses and figures beside the mill are difficult to make out, but the story is completed in the opposite view, where the white horse pulls a large wagon with a gnarled and long tree trunk tied to the structure, a man on top of the cart unstrapping the log to be processed in the mill. It leads the viewer of the present example to wonder if the lone figure captured on the bridge is actually Robert Gallon superimposing himself into the scene, as that is exactly the vantage point the second painting would have been pictured from. This work is being sold in it’s current unrestored condition (see notes below), but we can certainly make arrangements to have it fully cleaned and restored for you upon request (this can have up to six months of processing time depending on our conservator’s schedule). It presents in a most powerful way, being housed in an early and finely hand-carved gilded frame with hints of the red bole coming through the brilliant burnished surface. The back of the painting retains an early Christies label with reference number EV349; the reverse of the canvas retains the original stamp from painting supply...