Morning Light

Oil-on-canvas, signed lower left

Painting Size: 19.75” x 25.5”
Frame Size: 24 ” x 30”

Brasseur was a painter and designer who specialized in religious art as well as genre scenes, portraits and nudes.He was a student at the Saint-Luc School in Schaerbeek where he spent his last year as a scene painter. He adopted a Neo-Gothic style, typical of that school. Brasseur also produced copperplate engravings and stained glass windows. Among others, he worked with the Beyaert firm of Bruges and with the stained glass artist J. Osterrath.

Sources:
Benezit, E. "Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs"
"Le Dictionnaire des Peintres Belges du XIV Sicle du XIV Siècle à Nos Jours"
Piron, Paul , "De Belgische Beeldende Kunstenaars uit de 19de en 20ste eeuw"

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"

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"

"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"

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”

by C. Myron Clark (American, 1876-1925)

Oil on canvas, signed and dated: "1906"

Painting: 16" x 12"
Frame: 21.5" x 17.5"

American painter C. Myron Clark specialized in marine subjects and, like so many other artists, was drawn to Venice with its ongoing atmospheric shifts in the sky and sea. The Peabody Museum in Salem, MA has five of his works in the permanent collection. He is listed in Who Was Who in American Art by Falk and Dictionary of Sea Painters by Archibald.

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.

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"

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”

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"

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”

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).

Men Resting and Family on Beach, a pair of paintings

Oils on masonite, signed.

Painting size: 6” x 9”
Frame size: 9.5” x 12.5”

Crooke began painting at the age of 17 when his war service in the Australian Air Force took him to Borneo and the islands north of Australia. After the war, he remained in the area for a number of years before seeking additional artistic training at Swinburne Technical College under Roger James and Allan Jordan. He began exhibiting in 1969 and his portrayal of island life gained him great popularity.

Although he lived for a time in Melbourne, the draw of the north proved too strong. He returned to North Qld and traveled extensively among the northern islands. In 1966, Crooke was appointed an official artist in Vietnam for the following three years.

His work has been shown in Australian galleries from Melbourne to Sidney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. He has also had his work exhibited in the U.K. at the Tate Gallery and Leicester Galleries. The highest honor Crooke’s work has garnered is the Archibald Prize for his portrait of the writer George Johnston.

The National Collection, Canberra; all State Galleries and many regional galleries have his work represented in their permanent collections. He is also held in many private collections worldwide.

Crooke is listed in The Encyclopedia of Australian Art by McCulloch and Artists and Galleries of Australia and New Zealand by Germaine.

Summer Landscape

Oil on canvas, signed lower right

Painting size: 14.5” x 22.5”
Frame size: 19” x 27”

A native of Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Marshall became a highly regarded landscapist, painting mainly in the impressionist manner. Solo exhibitions of his work were held at the Peabody Institute and at The Baltimore Museum of Art. A student at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, he later exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Around 1918, Marshall turned to the ministry with charges in Cecil and Caroline Counties as well as in Delaware. Throughout the latter part of his life, he continued to paint, favoring evening and moonlight views of his native Eastern Shore.

Source:
The exhibition catalog: “Maryland Artists from the Collection,1890-1970” The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2002

** For other artwork by artists from Maryland, Virginia or Washington DC, click on the "Regional Artists" button on our homepage

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.

Charles Ross Kinghan (American, 1895-1984)

Watercolor on paper, signed.

A painter and illustrator, Kinghan trained at the American Academy of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to his studio work, Kinghan began a career as an art teacher. In 1937, he first offered private instruction. While that continued throughout his life, he also worked for a time at the American Art Academy which was followed by a position at the Huguenot School of Art. After leaving art academia, Kinghan worked for over ten years for various advertising agencies as a “sketch man”.

While busily employed in various capacities during his life, Kinghan also found time to participate in many exhibitions. His work was shown at the Art Institute of Chicago, Allied Artists of America, American Watercolor Society, National Academy of Design and many others.

In addition to winning two gold medals from the Allied Artists of America, in 1956 and 1964, Kinghan was a member of the association. He also held memberships in The National Academy, Academy Artists Association, American Watercolor Society and Hudson Valley Art Association. He served both the American Watercolor Society and Hudson Valley Art Association as vice president in 1969 and 1968, respectively.

He was a resident of Laguna Beach, CA at the time of his death.

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

Sight size: 14.5” x 20.5”
Frame size: 22.25” x 28.5”

Hillside Landscape

Watercolor on paper, signed lower right

Painting size: 11.5” x 17” Unframed

Nye lived, worked and taught in Washington, DC for 58 years. While he may have been born in Richmond, VA, his love for the city earned him the distinction of a "native" son.

Nye was educated in public schools before entering the Corcoran School of Art at age 13. He studied there for eight years before setting off on the requisite European travels. He traveled among England, France and Washington, DC for thirteen years. Along the way, he acquired a wife and a brief education at Oxford.

Once settled in Washington, DC, Nye began to produce the vast body of work by which he is remembered today. Most commonly, Nye painted landscapes and street scenes. A natural outcome of his prolific creativity was participation in numerous exhibitions.

His works were both included in group exhibitions and given total focus in one-man shows. The Washington Watercolor Society, Society of Washington Artists, Society of Independent Artists, Landscape Club of Washington and the Corcoran Gallery of Art were hosts to many of the exhibitions in which he participated. The Society of Washington Artists presented him with many awards during his career. On the year anniversary of his death, the Corcoran Gallery of Art presented a memorial exhibition of his work in recognition of the prominent place he held in the Washington art community.

Today, his work is held domestically in the permanent collections of the National Museum of American Art, Phillips Collection, Georgetown University and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Overseas, his work is represented in the Plymouth Gallery, England.

Sources:
The Artists of Washington, D.C. 1796-1996; McMahan, Virgil E.
Who Was Who in American Art; Falk, Peter Hastings.
The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800-1915; Cosentino, Andrew J. and Henry H. Glassie.

** For other paintings by artists from Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC or North Carolina, click on the “Regional Artists” button on our Homepage.

Moonlight on the Chesapeake

Oil on canvas, signed lower right

Painting size: 12” x 10”

Frame size: 15.5” x 13.5”

** For other paintings by artists from Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC or North Carolina, click on the “Regional Artists” button on our Homepage.

Watson was born in Baltimore, MD. He studied with A. Castaigne, E.S. Whiteman and D. Woodward. A founding member of the Baltimore Charcoal Club, he was also a member of the Baltimore Watercolor Club. Watson exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual Exhibition in 1906. He is noted for his Tonalist marine paintings where the softly dawnlit skies blend with the pale ocean waters, often with a bare outline of a sailboat.

Source:
Falk, Peter, ed. Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975

From the Estate of Antoinette Hughes, Catonsville, MD