O ur summer sale encompasses art from Britain and mainland Europe, demonstrating the wide-ranging fascinations of nineteenth and twentieth century artists, from still-life to portraiture, the depiction of animals and landscapes to romantic or realistic depictions of human life. The sale is particularly strong for pictures by Scandinavian artists, works on paper by the Pre-Raphaelites and British Impressionism. We hope that you will be able to join us to see the pictures in our pre-sale exhibition and in the meantime you can explore more online here.
The development of international tourism in the nineteenth century saw a rise in the new breed of traveller exploring the beauty spots of Europe, with Venice high on the list of desirable destinations. In the two centuries following the Italian renaissance, artists from across Europe sought to capitalise on the demand not only for views of the Floating City, but for scenes of the colourful daily life of its inhabitants. Our sale includes views by artists such as Rubens Santoro, Antonietta Brandeis, Carl Grubacs, James Webb and Stanhope Alexander Forbes.
We are delighted to be selling a group of Scandinavian paintings from a British collection. Not seen on the market for over thirty years the group of thirteen works include artists such as Carl Holsøe, Peter Ilsted and Vilhelm Hammershøi, who together formed the Danish School of Interior Painting. The works imbue the strange, silent beauty of Danish art at the turn of the century, in particular Holsøe’s single figure interior scenes and the collection includes an early and late depiction of Ida - Ilsted’s sister and Hammershøi’s wife - by both painters. Two works by female artists are also included; Swedish painter and illustrator Gerda Tirén (before she was married in 1884) paints mallows by a wall in Grez and Bertha Dorph, who reveled in depicting children and family life, captures a baby in a small, intimate panel. Works within the group have varied and interesting provenances - the Lévy-Dhurmer was gifted to the sitter – Leon Bourgeois who was one of the founding fathers of the League of Nations and Prime Minister of France and From the Artist’s Garden was gifted by the artist to Dr Knud Haraldses Krabbe, a talented Danish neurologist who in 1916 first described what is now known as Krabbe disease.
The summer sale appropriately includes a collection of pictures shimmering with sunlight and holiday spirit by a group of artists now referred to as the British Impressionists. Formed over the last twenty years, the group of oil paintings and a watercolour were painted on the coast of Cornwall in the first few decades of the twentieth century. They capture the new innovations of painting brought to England by artists who had trained in France and been influenced by the work of the Impressionists. The pictures are further linked by depicting childhood in Cornwall, the optimistic carefree existence of long, hot summer days fishing off the quayside as depicted in Harold Harvey’s painting, picking blossom, reading and quietly performing household chores in the work of the brilliant Garnet Wolseley or enjoying the sun on the beach in a charming watercolour by Wolseley’s friend Laura Knight.
