Victorian Interior Drawings and Watercolors

English illustrator, etcher and painter. Best known as the illustrator of the novels of Charles Dickens, under the pen-name Phiz. Browne had little formal training as an artist. He sporadically attended the St Martin’s Lane Academy life-class and was apprenticed to the line-engraver William Finden (1787-1852). In 1834 he cancelled his indenture and established an illustrators’ workshop with fellow apprentice Robert Young, producing etchings and watercolours in preference to the more laborious line-engravings. In the spring of 1836, he met Charles Dickens who was then looking for someone to illustrate The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club which was originally issued in monthly parts. Robert Seymour (1798-1836) provided the illustrations for the first two instalments before his suicide. Robert Buss (1804-1875) illustrated the third instalment, but his work was not liked by Dickens and the remaining instalments were illustrated by Browne. Browne initially signed himself ‘Nemo’ and then ‘Phiz’ (a depicter of physiognomies) to harmonize with Dickens’s ‘Boz’. He went on to illustrate most of Dickens’ novels. Browne’s long career as an illustrator, including work for Charles Lever...

An original watercolor by English artist Mary Winifred Freeman (1886-1912) titled "Cottager Knitting, The Grange, Cornwall", c. 1895. Signed by Freeman lower left seemingly gifted to M.E.L.. This is a gallery favorite; "Cottager Knitting" is immaculately executed. There is exquisite detail and use of lighting coming though the lighting onto the interior scene. A great watercolor painting by a great famous female artist. This work is beautifully framed with matting from Holland, filet from Italy, and moulding from Spain. Framed size: 18" x 21". Image size: 9" x 11" Winifred Freeman, (English: Active: 1886 - 1912),was an important Cornish woman artist. Her family, the Freemans, enjoyed the wealth of the Penryn granite quarries. She studied at Herkomer’s in Bushey, along with so many artists who found their way to Cornwall. Cheerfully eccentric, she wore knickerbockers and smoked cigars, lived for some time at Newlyn and exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy and elsewhere over many years. The importance of her work becomes more fully appreciated. In 2008 there was an exhibition of her work in Falmouth Art Gallery, accompanied by a publication by Brian Stewart. Margaret Powell has written evocatively about "Auntie Winnie." Her sister Amy married Charles Napier Hemy...