John Henry Smith (British, fl.1852-1893)

An Artist at Work

Oil-on-canvas, signed lower left and dated “1863”

Painting Size: 22.25” x 18”
Frame Size: 31.25 ” x 27.25”

This charming portrait of a young woman artist at work is a wonderful depiction of the painter and her tools. Her subject of a vase of flowers with fruit sits on a table to her right. The sturdy adjustable easel has a shelf where she has laid out her tubes of pigments. She is using a mahl stick to create a bridge across the canvas which supports her painting hand to avoid touching the surface. An artist’s apron lays across her lap to protect her skirt. Her full concentration is on the canvas in front of her which is nearing completion.

J. Henry Smith was a painter of genre, landscapes and animals, living in London, Brixton and South Lambeth who exhibited extensively from 1852-1893 at the royal Academy, the British Institution, the society of British Artists and elsewhere. Titles exhibited at the Royal Academy included “Where the Shoe Pinches” (1882) and “A Book is the Best Solitary Companion in the World” (1885).

Sources:
Johnson, J. and A Greutzner. "The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940"
Wood, Christopher. "Dictionary of British Art. Vol. IV, Victorian Painters"

John Syer, (British, 1815-1885)

Two Views of the West of England

A pair of oils on canvas, retaining Frost and Reed Gallery labels.

Sight Size: 10.25" x 13"
Canvas Size: 12" x 14 1/2"
Frame Size: 17.5" x 20"

Born at Atherstone, Warwickshire, England on May 17th, 1815, Syer studied with J. Fisher, a miniaturist, and settled in Bristol. Syer was one of the prime favorites of the Victorian era. He painted landscapes and coastal scenes with figures, often in Devon and Wales, of which he was regarded as a specialist and commanded high prices.

He was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours, and for some years he belonged to the Royal Society of British Artists, but resigned his membership in 1875 after his election to the Institute. He also exhibited 19 works at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 11 at the British Institute and 63 at the Royal Society of British Artists as well as at the Grosvenor Gallery.

Examples of his paintings and drawings are in the Leeds Gallery, the Birmingham Gallery ,the Bristol Gallery, the Leicester Art Gallery and the Sheffield Art Gallery.

Source:
Wood, Christopher, "The Dictionary of Victorian Paintings"

Ebenezer Colls (British , 1812-1887)

"The Old Ship Victory off Southampton Water"

Signed lower left and titled on an old label on the reverse.

Painting: 26" x 17.25"
Frame size: 32" x 23"

Colls was a painter of shipping and coastal scenes who lived in Camden Town, London and exhibited at the British Institution from 1852-4. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has a pair of his paintings. Denys Brook-Hart (see below) comments "Ebenezer Colls' pictures are quite rare although some paintings which are not his are sometimes attributed to him."

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. After 1824 she served as a harbor ship. In 1922 she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship.

Sources:
Archibald, E.H.H. "Dictionary of Sea Painters"
Brook-Hart, Denys. "British 19th Century Marine Painting"
Wood, Christopher. "Dictionary of British Art. Vol. IV, Victorian Painters"

Dutch School, 19th Century

Floral Still life with Tulips, Iris and Roses in a Glass Jar with Butterflies, Insects and a Shell

Oil on panel (slight warp)

Painting Size: 19.75” x 14.75”
Frame Size: 27 ” x 23”

Antique Carved Oak Statue of a Monk holding a book and seated on a curved bench. Probably American, circa 1880.

9" x 9" x 14" tall

Jean-Baptiste Germain (French 1841-1910)

Primavera

Bronze, signed.

Height: 33”

Known as a sculptor of classical and allegorical figures, Germain was a student of Dumont and Gumery. He worked with his brother Gustave in producing classical and historical statues and groups. Germain exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1866 to 1879 and later at the Salon des Artistes Français where he became an Associate in 1889. His bronzes include various images of Joan of Arc, Dido and Aeneas, The Harp Player, the Young Flutist and an Arab on his Camel.

Sources:
Benezit, E. "Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs"
Mackay, James. "The Dictionary of Western Sculptors in Bronze"

Fine George III Octagonal Cellarette or Wine Cooler in mahogany with brass banding, having a hinged lid opening to a tin liner, slightly tapered body with brass carrying handles and the original stand with four champfered legs. English, circa 1780.

Originally used in the dining room to hold wine brought up from the cellar for the meal, the tin liner would have protected the wood from the condensation from the bottles. Now often used as an occasional or end table.

Top: 19.25" x 19.25"
Height: 27"

A By-path

Henry Hobart Nichols, Jr. (American, 1869-1962)

Watercolor on paper, signed and dated: “1897”.

Exhibited at the Third Annual Washington Water Color Club, 1898.

Illustrated in McMahan, The Artists of Washington, DC: 1796-1996, p. 158.

Provenance: from the Estate of Virgil McMahan.

A painter and illustrator, Nichols was a member of quite an artistic family. His father, brother and wife were all professional painters as well.

He had diverse training beginning with instruction from Howard Helmick. He also attended the Art Students League of Washington before heading to Europe. In Europe, he studied at both the Froebel Institute in Germany and at the Academie Julian in France.

His early career (1889-1905) included a position on the Board of the Art Students League, as well as employ by the U.S. government. He worked as an illustrator for both the U.S. Geological Society and the Bureau of American Ethnology.

A member of the Washington Watercolor Club and Society of Washington Artists, Nichols favored subject was landscapes.

Nichols is listed in Who Was Who in American Art by Falk.

Sight size: 13” x 9.5”
Frame size: 21” x 17”

** For other paintings by artists from Maryland, Virginia or Washington DC, type “local” into the search box.

Fine Pair of French Brass Urns with two handles, raised relief of floral sprays on the sides, and with rouge marble bases. Late 19th century.

Height: 12”
Diameter of Marble base: 5”

Antique English Umbrella or Stick Stand of Coopered construction, oval, with brass binding with oak staves. Now fitted with a divided top and interior tin drip tray. 18th/19th Century.

16" x 13" x 24.5" tall

Rare Chester County Pennsylvania Spice Chest in walnut having a moulded cornice above a raised panel door opening to an arrangement of ten small drawers (one replaced) and raised on straight bracket feet. Secondary woods include: poplar, oak, walnut and beech. There is a faint inscription on one of the bottom drawers. Pennsylvania, circa 1760-80.

Spice boxes or chests were a status symbol in colonial America. Only a household that was well furnished and fairly prosperous had a spice box. Spice chests were popular among the Quakers of the Delaware Valley during the late seventeenth and throughout the eighteenth centuries, remaining fashionable in Pennsylvania long after falling out of style elsewhere. The boxes, fitted in the interior with banks of small drawers, were often displayed in the public rooms (not the kitchens) of homes, functioning as both a repository for small valuables, such as spices and silver and jewelry items, and as a symbol of the family’s prosperity.

18"W x 9.75"D x 22" tall

William Richardson Tyler (American 1825-1896)

Misty Morning at Windsor Castle

Oil-on-canvas, signed lower left

Painting Size: 18.5”” x 29.5”
Frame Size: 31” x 42”

**Please Note: This item is not currently on view in our gallery. Please call at least 48 hours in advance if you wish to see it.

Tyler is known to have lived and worked in Troy, NY during the 1850‘s and 60‘s where, aside from Abel Buell Moore, he was Troy’s best known artist. According to William Gerdts “Troy was a prosperous industrial and commercial city. It was also a major center of education in the 19th century. Tyler had gone to Troy to work for the carriage company of Eaton and Gilbert. In 1858 Tyler opened his own painting studio (and he) painted the local landscape but was more drawn to the sea. He specialized in scenes off the coast of Long Island and Massachusetts.” It is apparent from the record of his works that he traveled extensively in Europe painting scenes in Venice and scenes in England such as this luminist view of Windsor Castle. Tyler also painted the landscapes of the White Mountains (NH) and the Keene Valley in the Adirondacks of New York.

Tyler exhibited at the National Academy of Design (1862-1867 and 1878) and his work “Breezy Day Off Boston Light” is held by the Troy Public Library.

Sources:
Benezit, E. "Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs"
Creps, Bob, "Biographical Encyclopedia of American Painters, Sculptors &Engravers of the U.S."
Falk, Peter, ed. "Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975"
Gerdts, William H., "Art Across America, Two Centuries of Regional Painting"

English School, early 19th century

Portrait of a Woman in Lace Cap

Oil on panel.

Provenance: J. Davey & Sons, Manchester, England

Painting size: 8.5” x 7”
Frame size: 11.5” x 10”

Tabletop Still Life with Fruit A lithograph by C.H. Crosby & Co., 1874, in a folk art carved frame.

Print size: 5.25” x 7.5”
Frame size (max): 10.5” x 12.5”

Ferdinand Leeke (German 1859-1923)

The Art Critics

Oil-on-canvas, signed lower right, located “Meran” and dated “1906"

Painting Size: 39.5” x 31.75”
Frame Size: 48.25 ” x 40”

A painter of historical, genre and allegorical scenes, Leeke studied at the Munich Academy under Johann Herterich and with the Hungarian genre and landscape painter Alexander von Wagner. Around 1889, Leeke was commissioned by Siegried Wagner, son of Richard Wagner to paint a series of scenes from his father’s operas to commemorate Wagner and his work. The series was completed in 1898.

This scene of two young country women gazing at an absent artist’s canvas is set in the south Tyrol above Merano, Italy, near the Austria/Italy border. We know this because of a similar view of the same cottage titled “Schwarzplatterhof oberhalb Merans” (Schwarzplatterhof above Merano). The area is now a famous resort and vacation area.

Sources:
Benezit, E. "Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs"
Thieme-Becker, ed. "Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler vonder Antike bis zu Gegenwart"

Tabletop Still Life with Glass Vases

Henri Dominique Roszezewski (French, 19th/20th century)

Oil on panel, signed.

A painter of landscapes and still lifes, Roszezewski studied under Maillard. He made his debut at the Salon de Paris in 1868 and was particularly noted for his still life paintings.

Roszezewski is listed in Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs by Bénézit. Painting size: 8.5” x 6.25”
Frame size: 16” x 14”

John White (English, 1851-1933)

Woodland Fall Landscape

Oil on panel, signed in lower left corner, “JN White, R.I.”

Painting size: 6.75” x 10”
Frame size: 10.5” x 13.5”

Known for his rustic genre paintings and landscapes, White attended the Royal Scottish Academy. By 1877, he moved to Devon and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street and the New Watercolor Society.

On this landscape, White painted the initials “R.I.” after his name, indicating that he was a Member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolors. Although this work is in oil, White’s scumbled brushwork has the immediacy of watercolor and creates the atmospheric haze of a fall afternoon.

John White was also a Member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil-Colors. He is listed in The Dictionary of British Watercolor Artists up to 1920 (Mallalieu, 1976) and the Dictionary of British Art, Volume IV Victorian Painters (Wood, 1995).

William Aiken Walker (American, b. c.1838-1921)

Man in a Cottonfield

Oil on board, signed lower left.

$16,500. Painting Size: 8.25” x 4.25”
Frame Size: 12.5” x 8.5”

A lifelong artist, Walker exhibited his first painting at the age of twelve and continued to paint until his death 71 years later.

In the 1860’s Walker traveled to Dusseldorf for artistic training and remained for several years. Returning to Charleston, he joined the Confederate Army and served as a cartographer. At the conclusion of the war, Walker moved to Baltimore where he had spent a portion of his childhood. Until 1876, Walker split his residence between Charleston and Baltimore. However, on a visit to New Orleans in that year, he fell in love with the city and spent the next 29 years, calling it home.

Best known for his genre scenes of African Americans in the post Civil War South, Walker is listed in numerous references including Who Was Who in American Art by Falk and Art Across America by Gerdts. He has also been the subject of several monographs.

William Aiken Walker was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 11, 1839. He had an artistic bent at a very early age; he exhibited his first oil painting at the South Carolina Institute in 1850 when he was 11 years old. The first known still life by Walker was produced in 1858. Animal and fish portraits followed, along with a few portraits and landscapes.

During the Civil War, Walker served as a private in Charleston's Palmetto Regiment of the South Carolina Volunteers. He was given a medical discharge in August 1861. He continued to serve as a volunteer draftsman in the Confederate Engineers Corps.

When Charleston was decimated in a great fire in 1861, Walker recorded the resultant ruins. In 1863 Charleston was shelled by Union troops; Walker recorded that event too.

In 1864 Walker created perhaps the most collectible of all decks of American playing cards. Sixteen of the cards carried miniature paintings, ranging from the bombardment of Fort Sumter to portraits of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, and Stonewall Jackson as kings.

What Walker did between 1866 and 1868 remains a mystery, but by the latter year he had settled in Baltimore. He visited New York and Cuba but was back in Baltimore by 1871, when he began the series of paintings that would capture the attention of present-day collectors.

Walker's Gathering Herbs, 1871, depicted an African-American woman at the herb garden, a basket in her arms, and another on her head. The depictions of what would be later known as "The Sunny South" had commenced. Although he painted scenes depicting Anglo-Saxon citizens and landscapes, it would be the African-American scenes that would come to be recognized as Walker's seminal body of work.

He traveled extensively in the South, from South Carolina to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, to Florida, to New Orleans, and wherever he traveled, he painted. The focus of his energy from the early 1880's to the mid-1890's was the cotton trade. Walker was fortunate in many ways, not the least of which is the fact that his paintings were collected and sold during his lifetime. Major paintings sold in the $70 to $100 range while he still was alive.

By the time Walker had reached his sixties, he returned to landscapes and still life subjects, though his bread-and-butter work was still the genre scenes of the Old South. Walker died on January 3, 1921, just two months shy of his 82nd birthday.