James John Hill

Portrait of a Gleaner - British Victorian art harvest portrait oil painting

1863

Henry Room, noted Birmingham artist, painted this lovely Victorian portrait oil painting. It was painted in 1842 and exhibited at the Society of British Artists the same year, entitled Forsaken Innocence. It is a charming half length portrait of a young lady in a hat, dark ringlets gleaming and ruby red lips slightly smiling. She is holding a sheaf of wheat with trees beyond. The detail and brushwork are lovely. A super pastoral oil painting and an accomplished example of Henry Room's work with excellent provenance. . Signed lower left. Indistinctly inscribed to label verso. Provenance. Exhibited at the Society of British Artists 1842 no. 63 entitled Forsaken Innocence. Mentioned in “German Compliments to British Art,” The Art-Union (Dec. 1842), 279-281. Comments by Dr. Henry Merz on the exhibition of the Society of British Artists (Suffolk Street, Pall-Mall East); p.280: “In this exhibition we find also the peculiar sentimentalism of the English school, in No. 129, ‘Sterne’s Poor Maria,’ by F. Stacpoole; No. 63, ‘Forsaken Innocence’ (a coquettish young lady with a sheaf of gleanings in her apron), by H. Room” Berwick House, Shropshire. James Watson was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham in 1818, He bought Berwick House In August 1875. With the renovations on the mansion house nearing completion, by 1879 Watson turned his sights to forming a collection of suitably impressive paintings and furnishings for the recreated rooms. Condition. Oil and panel, 30 inches by 25 inches and in good condition. Frame. Housed in an ornate gilt frame, 38 inches by 33 inches and in good condition. Henry Room (1802–1850) was an English portrait-painter, from an evangelical background in Birmingham. Henry Room was born in Newhall Street, the son of John Room, a japanner, and studied at Joseph Barber's drawing school on Great Charles Street. An original member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, he was also one of the group of artists that broke away from the Society in 1828 to exhibit at a rival institution in Temple Row. Room was in London in the late 1820s, sharing a studio with Peter Hollins in Old Bond Street. He was a deacon in the church of John Morison. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1826 onwards and completed many portraits of missionaries, academics and reformers which were engraved by John Cochran. Room maintained close links with Birmingham and was appointed as auditor for the newly formed Birmingham Society of Artists in 1842. He had a reputation as a painter of portraits, and received commissions, some of his portraits being engraved. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826. He practised for some time at Birmingham. He painted a portrait of Thomas Clarkson...

This lovely colourful British 19th century genre oil painting is by Victorian artist William Henry Midwood. Painted circa 1870 it is a charming Victorian interior genre scene of a farmer and his daughter and their collie dog. The artist has perfectly captured the interaction between the three characters and the colouring and brushwork is superb. A lovely example of British Victorian genre painting...

The Gleaner by Charles Sillem LIDDERDALE (British, 1831-1895) signed & dated 1890 oil painting on canvas, framed in what we believe to be the original frame framed: 51.5 x 37.5 inch...

This atmospheric painting depicts a rustic scene where a figure stands in a dimly lit barn, framed by the dramatic contrast between the dark foreground and a luminous farm landscape ...