Harold Harvey

Cornish Family in an Interior - British 1912 Newlyn School art oil painting

Circa 1912

This superb RSA exhibited Scottish Edwardian interior oil painting is by Glasgow Boy artist Alexander Ignatius Roche. It was painted circa 1914 when Roche was living at 8 Royal Terrace, on Calton Hill, a very prestigious property in Edinburgh, now the Halcyon Hotel. The painting is a view of Roche's studio, quite possibly one of the rooms at the above address. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy the following year, no. 333 entitled The Studio. The painting shows Roche beneath the vast window in his studio against a red wall that meets pale floorboards. Various items and furniture are scattered about. The balance of the white window and pale floorboards with the red wall intersecting is perfect. A really lovely example of this great Glasgow Boy artist's work and a very personal piece showing his inner sanctum. Signed lower right. Provenance. Exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy 1915 no. 333, entitled The Studio. Condition. Oil on canvas, 24 inches by 20 inches and in good condition. Frame. Housed in a gilt frame, 32 inches by 28 inches and in good condition. Alexander Ignatius Roche RSA NEAC RP (1861-1921) was a Scottish artist in the late 19th century and an important figure in the “Glasgow Boys. He was born in the Gallowgate in Glasgow, the son of a milliner, Alexander Roche. He attended St Mungo’s Academy in Bridgeton, Glasgow. He originally trained as an architect, but then changed to art, studying at the Glasgow School of Art and, from 1881, at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Here he studied under Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Leon Gerome. In his time here he befriended William Kennedy, John Lavery, Thomas Millie Dow and William Stott. In the early 1880s he joined a colony of Scots artists in Grez-sur-Loing south of Fontainebleau. On his return to Scotland in 1885 he joined with the Glasgow Boys working on murals for the 1888 International Exhibition. In 1888 he travelled to Capri where he befriended Fabio Fabbi and Harold Speed. In following years he visited both Venice and Florence, and married an Italian girl on the latter trip. This marriage was short-lived and they separated. As both were Catholics there seems to have never been any divorce. In 1896 he moved from Glasgow to Edinburgh and began to distance himself from the Glasgow Boys. His work drifted from largely landscape to portraits. In 1906 he remarried (possibly bigamously), to Jean Alexander, daughter of Robert Alexander. During this period they enjoyed the friendship of Joseph Crawhall...

This superb, large British Victorian oil painting is by noted Newlyn and Menton artist Arthur Alfred Burrington. It was painted circa 1890 when Burrington was most likely in Newlyn, ...

This charming Victorian genre oil painting is by noted British artist Frederick George Pasmore junior. The painting is full of rich colour and tells a story. The scene is a detailed ...

This stunning, large British Edwardian Newlyn School interior portrait oil painting is by much noted and exhibited artist Walter Langley. Originally from Birmingham, Langley and his family moved to St Ives in 1881. He was one of the first artists to settle and painted the local fishermen and their families. Painted in 1906 and entitled The Evening of Life, the painting is a full length seated portrait of an elderly lady in a cottage interior. She is sat by a table on which she has a bible, jug of flowers and her sewing equipment. Across her lap she has a large patchwork quilt to mend but is lost in thought. In fact the same sitter and quilt can be seen in Memories, also painted in 1906 and in the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. Memories includes more of the cottage interior but the sitter's head is bowed towards her hands. The Evening of Life is more vibrant and the sitters face is much more visible as are the lovely colours of the quilt. The painting has fantastic detail, great brushwork and the Newlyn school palette of colours. The provenance is excellent, having been kept in the same family ownership so fresh to market. The painting appeared in the artist's catalogue Raisonne and was also in 1997 biography by Langely's grandson, Roger Langley, entitled Walter Langley: Pioneer of the Newlyn Art Colony. This a superb example of Langley's work, a good size and composition and a pleasure to gaze upon. Signed lower left and dated (19)06. Provenance. : Ford, 1906 (£63). Long in the previous family ownership and sold by the executors of the estate. Thomas Wood and Sons label verso. Literature: Langley (R) - Walter Langley Pioneer of the Newlyn Art Colony 1997, catalogue raisonne p.170 (under 1906). Condition. Oil on canvas, 40 inches by 30 inches unframed, in good condition and unlined canvas. Frame. Housed in a gilt frame 47 inches by 37 inches and in good condition. Walter Langley (8 June 1852 – 21 March 1922) was an English painter and founder of the Newlyn School of plein air artists. He was born in Birmingham and his father was a journeyman tailor. At 15 he was apprenticed to a lithographer. At 21 he won a scholarship to South Kensington and he studied designing there for two years. The sometimes highly ornate work is mainly in gold and silver and in a Renaissance style. He returned to Birmingham but took up painting full-time, and in 1881 was elected an Associate of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. In the same year he was offered £500 for a year's work by a Mr Thrupp (a Birmingham photographer). With this money he and his family moved to Newlyn where he was one of the first artists to settle and began recording the life of the fishing community. Politically left wing for his era, he was noted for his social realist portrayals of working class figures, particularly fishermen and their families. He was a supporter of Charles Bradlaugh, a radical socialist politician. His own working-class background enabled him to identify with the villagers and the hardships they endured, many of his paintings reflect this sympathy with the working-class fisher-folk amongst whom he lived. One of the best known works is the watercolour For Men Must Work and Women Must Weep (1883; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) based on Charles Kingsley's poem The Three Fishers (1851). Another is Between The Tides (1901; Warrington Museum & Art Gallery). Although one of the first to settle in the Newlyn artists' colony Newlyn School, Langley initially benefited little from its growing fame, partly because of his working-class origins and partly because until 1892 he painted largely in watercolour rather than the more prestigious medium of oils. His early training in lithography gives his paintings a detail and texture that show his technical skills. In 1884, Langley was elected a member of the RBSA and continued to exhibit widely throughout the UK and abroad. Later in his career his reputation grew. One of Langley's paintings was singled out as "a beautiful and true work of art" by Leo Tolstoy in his book What is Art?, while in 1895 Langley was invited by the Uffizi to contribute a self-portrait to hang alongside those of Raphael, Rubens and Rembrandt in their collection of portraits of great artists. Today his work is considered "vital to the image of the Newlyn School" and "alongside Stanhope Forbes ... the most consistent in style and substantial in output". Exhibited: Royal Society of Artist Birmingham 57, Dudley Gallery 4, Dowdeswell Gallery 17...

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Charming turn-of-20th Century interior painting that takes the viewer back to simpler times with grandmother, grandfather, mother sewing and a young girl playing with her greyhound a...