Howard Somerville

Portrait of Gwen Le Bas - Scottish 1930 Royal Academy Exhib art oil painting

1930

This lovely British Art Deco portrait oil painting is by noted artist James Robert Granville Exley and provenance is by family descent. The sitter is Elizabeth Exley, possibly his wi...

This stunning much exhibited 1920's Scottish portrait oil painting is by noted Glasgow Girl artist Norah Nielson Gray. Painted circa 1923, the model for the painting was Rita McIlraith but the artist did not want to use her name in the title and it was called 'Exotic.' Norah Neilson Gray...

This striking Art Deco portrait oil painting is by female artist Jolan Polatschek Williams. Williams was born in Austria but settled in England in the 1920's where she remained. Pain...

A stunning portrait oil painting of Violet Ann Gilbert which was painted by James Peter Quinn in 1929 and was exhibited at The Paris Salon of that year. A beautiful portrait of a young woman from the nineteen twenties. In excellent condition and framed in the original period frame. This is a fine painting by a noted listed artist and a great example of an early 20th century portrait painting. Signed lower left. Provenance. Exhibited at the Paris Salon 1929, labels verso. Condition. Oil on canvas in excellent condition, image size 40 inches by 30 inches. Housed in its original gallery frame, framed size is 47 by 37 inches. Excellent condition. James Peter Quinn (1869-1951) was born on 4 December 1869 at 60 Bourke Street, Melbourne, third son of John Quinn, restaurant-keeper born in Antigua, West Indies, and his English wife Ann, née Long. Little is known of Quinn's childhood and early education; both parents died when he was young. His guardians apprenticed him to an engraver, but he undertook part-time studies at the school of design, National Gallery of Victoria, under Frederick McCubbin in 1887-89, and at the school of painting under George Folingsby and Bernard Hall in 1890-93. Awarded several student prizes, he won the gallery's travelling scholarship in 1893. Quinn went to London in 1894 but quickly left for Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian, at the Académie des Beaux-Arts under Jean Paul Laurens, and with Colarossi and Delécluse. He returned to London about 1902 and married fellow art-student Blanche Louise Guernier there on 29 September. By 1904 he had exhibited with the Royal Academy of Arts and went on to establish a reputation as a highly successful portrait painter. His finest and most sensitive work was produced before 1910. His family were the subjects of many paintings, including 'Mère et Fils', awarded an honourable mention at the Old Salon, Paris, in 1912. He also painted many self-portraits. His many commissioned works included portraits of Joseph Chamberlain, the Duchess of York and, later, the Duke of Windsor. In 1918-19 he was an official war artist with the Australian Imperial Force in France, and exhibited war paintings at the Grafton Galleries, London. In 1919, with George Coates, he was an official artist to the Canadian War Records. He was a council-member of the London Portrait Society, and a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, exhibiting regularly with them and the Royal Academy, and in Paris with the Old and New salons. Quinn's sudden return to Australia in December 1935, alone, followed the death of his gifted artist-son René. He held exhibitions at the Fine Art Society's Gallery, Melbourne, in 1936 and the Royal South Australian Society of Arts Gallery the next year. Quinn ostensibly returned as an acclaimed artist, was invited to rejoin the Victorian Artists' Society he had joined first in 1888, and was its president (but for one year) in 1937-50. Yet a coolness existed. Though he had little in common with the modernist painters of the period, his commitment to a tolerant brotherhood of artists found no allies among the aggressively conservative old guard. In 1937 he clashed publicly with (Sir) Robert Menzies who in opening a V.A.S. exhibition denigrated modern art. In spite of the affection felt for him by many artists and students, Quinn was somewhat isolated. He continued to exhibit, winning the Crouch prize, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, in 1941. In the mid-1940s he taught briefly at the National Gallery school. A lover of good food, wine and conversation, Quinn delighted in mixing with all classes. Frequenting the haunts of journalists, writers and the more Bohemian fringe, he was easily recognizable with his bow tie, grey curly hair and cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. Survived by one son, he died of cancer on 18 February 1951 at Prahran and was buried in St Kilda cemetery. His war portraits are held by the Australian War...

Léa Lafugie was a French painter born in Paris, known for her portraits and landscapes inspired by her travels. She studied at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris and lat...

Jirayr Hamparzoom Zorthian was born April 14, 1911 in Kutahya, Turkey, of Armenian parents. At the age of three, he showed considerable talent in drawing and painting. Zorthian went through two Turkish massacres before age eight. He left Turkey at age nine with his family and spent a year in Padua, Italy, waiting for his visa to open to the United States. This period was very important in his life because his father took him to many cities in Europe and exposed him to great works of art. Zorthian arrived in the United States at the age of eleven and settled with his family in New Haven, Connecticut. He obtained his formal education there, after graduating from Yale, the Winchester Fellowship granted him a year and a half at the American Academy in Rome with travel and study throughout Europe. His art career branched into various directions on his return to the United States. As a mural painter his reputation was established. He has forty two (42) murals throughout the United States. Zorthian worked and taught painting at some of the finest art academies on the west coast including both the Chouinard Art Institute and the Otis Art Institute. The Old Gentleman...

Jean Dominique Van Caulert, (1897-1979), although most often associated with his celebrity portraits and works for the theater, he was also a true symbolist in the tradition of the B...

We are proud to have recently discovered, “The Sophisticate”, by American artist Alexander Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld was classically trained in fine ...