Charming Pair of Paintings "Putti Playing in a River" after Jacob de Wit

Dimensions with frame : Height : 116 cm (45.7 in.) ; Width : 144 cm (56.7 in.) Dimensions without frame : Height : 85 cm (33.5 in.) ; Width : 118 cm (46.5 in.) Atrium with a rich Pompeian decor in which a young woman lying on a bed is playing with a sparrow, not paying attention to the man sat at her feet. This painting is a major work of art of C. G. Brun, well-know for the precision of his technic, by the elegance of its composition, the pureness of the colors, the refinement of the touch and the expressivity of the characters. This rare intimist scene in a interior decorated in the Pompeian style perfectly illustrates the taste of the time for the discovery of the villas of Pompei, thanks to the archeological excavations of the 18th century and the books published about them. To arrange its interiors based on the models of the Pompeian villas is then a trend that the most important people of that time will follow, as the Prince Napoléon, cousin of the Emperor Napoléon III, who orders the construction of a splendid Pompeian villa on the Avenue Montaigne, of which nothing remains but a few pictures and a painting by Gustave Boulanger, dated 1861 and called Répétition du « Joueur de flûte » et de la « Femme de Diomède » chez le Prince Napoléon. This painting illustrates the poem « Fletus passeris Lesbiae » from the collection « Carmina » written by Catulle (87-54 av. J.-C.) : in his work, the author, in love with Lesbie, a married woman living in Rome, puts on a show a sparrow as the main center of interest of its mistress who neglects her suitor. This theme has been represented many times in painting, like the version by Raphaël Poggi exposed at the Salon of 1865, or Lawrence Alma-Tadema in 1866 or Edward Poynter in 1907. Painting exposed, as reference number 467, at the Salon of 1861 on the picture rail of the Palais des Champs-Elysées Charles Guillaume Brun, born in Montpellier in 1825 and died in Paris in 1908, was registered in 1847 at the Paris Beaux-Arts school, where he studied under the direction of François- Edouard Picot (1786-1868) and of Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889). His participation in the Paris Salon began in 1851 with genre subjects (Young girl doing her morning prayer), but as soon as 1853, he regularly sent Orientalist scenes, located in Algeria (Prayer in 1859, Rendez-vous in Constantine in 1861, Moorish woman...

Signed on the bottom right Henry Picou. Charming mythological scene representing a round of nymphs, symbol of fertility and benevolence, wearing crowns of flowers and dancing in the middle of a wheat field. They are accompanied by playful winged cupids flying around them and throwing flowers. Author of genre and portrait scenes, Henry Picou has mainly distinguished himself, in the neo-Greek movement of the second half of the 19th Century, in the representation of allegorical paintings thanks to his delicate and colorful touch. Born on July 27th, 1824 in Nantes and died on July 17th, 1895 in Paris, Henry-Pierre Picou is an history, portrait and genre scenes painter, who has distinguished himself in the Neo-greek movement. Entering at twelve years old in the workshop of the painter Paul Delaroche, he then follows Charles Gleyre’s teaching in the Ecole Royale des Beaux-Arts de Paris. In Paris, he becomes friend with young painters among which Jean-Léon Gérôme, Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Louis Hamon. This group, who is passionate about recent discoveries about Roman and Greek antiquity, starts exposing in the Salon in 1847, and Jean-Léon Gérôme’s painting, le Combat de coqs, awarded with a gold medal, allows them to be noticed and devotes Gérôme as the leader of this new Neo-greek movement. This artistic movement quickly becomes fashionable, also influencing the decorative arts and the architecture. Henry Picou wins the second prize of Rome in 1853 for his painting Jésus chassant les marchands du Temple, preserved today in the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. When Neo-greek artists are not so popular anymore, Henry Picou devotes himself to a career as a portraitist and genre scene painter, and exposes to the Salon paintings...

Important painting representing a music lesson, composed of a group of three elegantly dressed ladies, listening to a musician playing the lute and accompanied on vocals by a man hold a musical score in hand. The artist’s genre scenes are distinguished by the softness of the eyes, the romanticism of the attitudes and the harmony of the tones used. Giuseppe Ghedina is born in Cortina d’Ampezzo on March 1st, 1825, he started studying in 1838 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Pupil of Ludovico...

Charming pair of paintings representing young women in well-off interiors during their music lesson, one illustrating a singing lesson and the other a Cello lesson. The theme of the music lesson...

Rare signed and dated Grisaille panel of The Allegory of Art by "Jacob de Wit," 1749. Incorporated into a mirror in the late 18th century. Putti en grisaille. Original gilt. Al...

European painting of young girl with sailor dress

These extraordinary ‘paintings’ were created using coloured grains of sand rather than paints. Each is after an original painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg. The first scene shows the Battle of Hastings with a central mounted figure, presumably William the Conqueror, with a red plume in his helmet, raising his sword against a fighter on foot. A printed version of this image, shown above, was made by William Bromley. (See the British Museum registration number 1858,1009.115 for a fine impression.) The second scene, composed with a similar central mounted knight with a raised axe (sword in the original) represents Richard the Lionheart in combat against Saladin at the Battle of Acre. In this case the print was made by Anker Smith...

Erasmus Bernhard van Dulmen Krumpelman (1897–1987) was a Dutch painter known for his impressionistic and later more expressive style. Born in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, he moved with his family to Amsterdam shortly after his birth. He initially attended the Barlaeus Gymnasium and then studied at the Hendrik de Keyserschool, though he was expelled due to absenteeism. He later completed his state exam in drawing at the Rijksnormaalschool in 1914. Van Dulmen's early career was influenced by political cartoonist Johan Braakensiek, and he gained exposure to artists like George Breitner...