1890s Animal Drawings and Watercolors

This late 19th-century gouache by British artist Joseph Knight (1837-1909) depicts a gentle moorland landscape with cattle. Knight was primarily known for his naturalistic depictions of North Wales. Raised amid the hurried industrious streets of Chorlton-Upon-Medlock in Manchester, Knight was obliged to pursue a career at one of its many cotton mills. His father, also Joseph Knight, was a mill engineer and would’ve expected his son to follow suit. It appears he was sent to work at the age of four - unthinkable today, but not uncommon in the 1840s. In around 1841, Knight was involved in an accident, which resulted in the loss of his right arm. This probably coincided with him being sent, together with his siblings, to stay with relatives, Thomas and Jane Knight, also of Chorlton. Evidently, following this, he undertook a change of direction, taking the first steps on a path to artistry. During the mid to late 19th century, landscape paintings grew in popularity partly due to the desires of a new middle-class buyer but also as a tonic for increasing urbanisation. And perhaps there’s no better example of an artist who understood the restorative qualities of nature than Joseph Knight. In his early teens, he gained employment at a photography studio, primarily assisting with portraiture. With a keen eye for composition, his skills flourished and were met with much approval from staff and customers alike. It was here that he first met with Mr. Henry Crowley who was so taken by the boy’s aptitude that he encouraged him to seek a career as a painter. Crowley funded his education, enrolling him at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, where the emphasis was on honing one’s draughtsmanship in a strict environment via diligent study and life drawing. With his technique now evolved, commissions were forthcoming - both as a painter and photographer. In the 1861 census, now married, he records his occupation as ‘Photographic artist and painter in oil’. It’s plausible that he was involved in adding tints to photographic portraits during this period while also working as a painter. As recognition of his development, in 1868, he was elected as a full member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, and a year later debuted at London’s Royal Academy with ‘Evening, Near Quimper, Brittany’ and ‘Breton Peasants’. It was around this time that he came to the attention of several of his younger contemporaries who viewed his naturalistic approach as altogether fresher and entirely modern. In a quiet rebellion against their formulaic training, they undertook to paint directly from nature, ‘en plein air’, without the rigour of academic constraints. The group, which included Joshua Anderson Hague...

This beautiful late 19th-century watercolour by British artist James Herbert Snell (1861-1935) depicts a shepherd herding sheep in the evening. Snell was an interesting painter as h...

Two Ducks - Trompe l'Oeil Style in Pastel on Paper Two ducks in a realistic style by LV Seely (19th Century). The birds are hanging by their feet, as if they have just been hunted. ...

"New Forest" Pastoral Landscape in Watercolor on Cardstock Serene landscape with livestock by an unknown artist (19th Century). The viewer is on a hill in a forested area, overlooki...

"Vaches au paturage sur les bords de la Seine (Cows Grazing on the Banks of the Seine)" is a pastel on paper by Alfred Sisley. The artwork is signed lower left, "Sisley". The framed ...

William Cruickshank (1848-1922). Still Life with a Dead Goldfinch and Nest. Watercolour and gouache on buff paper, 21 x 24.5 cm (visible size), 40 x 42 cm (frame), signed W Cruickshank on the left. Framed behind glass in a passpartout. About the artwork The painting has an atmosphere of melancholy beauty. The clutch of eggs, recalling the wonderfully mysterious blue of Romanticism, the matching blue flowers and the goldfinch with its black, yellow and red plumage show nature in all its beauty, and yet the goldfinch is dead. It lies on its back, its head bent backwards in an unnatural way, its claws lifeless and one wing outstretched in a last effort. This makes the scene a natura morta, a still life that spreads the melancholy silence of an eternal moment. Yet there is also an inherent movement in the picture, enhanced by the streaky application of paint. A movement that here signifies the intertwining of life and death: death, which the goldfinch has met in mid-life, before it has been able to hatch its offspring, while at the same time the mysterious blue eggs that have not hatched point to a higher life after death. Finally, the goldfinch feeding on the thorny thistles traditionally represents Christ and his redemptive sacrificial death. The goldfinch is depicted in a similar way in Carel Fabritius' famous painting The Thistle Finch (1654), in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The bird is alive, but chained and thus prevented from flying. In this tradition, Cruickshanks' painting is a memento mori that is immediately appealing to today's viewer - a meditative image of life and death that also contains an affirmation of life in all the beauty of creation. In order to enhance the readability of this pictorial sense, the objects depicted are tilted into the plane so that the individual elements of the picture can be more easily related to one another, but without destroying the sense of space. Cruickshank, who specialised in this type of painting, combined the emblematics of the Baroque with the imagery of Romanticism and a style borrowed from landscape painting. Cruickshank's mastery of materials is evident in his fusion of watercolour and gouache, in which the more intense colours of gouache concretise the motif from an indeterminate, moving colour space. The painted objects have the aesthetic quality of fine painting, although, as in the case of the nest, they are formed by a virtuoso structure of blotches. Selected bibliography Algernon Graves: The Royal Academy of Arts. A complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904, vol. 2: Carroll to Dyer, London 1905. Leo R. Schidlof: The miniature in Europe. In the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, vol. 1: A - L, Graz 1964. Jeremy Maas: Victorian painters, London 1996. Daphne Foskett: A Dictionary of British miniature...

Texas naturalistic farm landscape watercolor painting in the style of Frank Reaugh. Often called the “Dean of Texas Painters,” this piece captures his ded...

An extremely charming miniature American folk art painting depicting two blue birds with a nest. Unsigned but 19th Century in a more contemporary frame.

Initialed lower left, 'W' for Edwin Lord Weeks (American, 1849-1903) and painted circa 1895. Edwin Lord Weeks was born near Boston and educated in Bo...

"Boatyard with Seagulls" is a pencil drawing on paper by Henry Snell (New Hope, Pennsylvania / Gloucester, Massachusetts 1858 - 1943). The drawing measures 3 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches; it i...

Casimir Brau-Simon, (active in France from 1890 to 1930) A roaring Cougar, 1895, Signed and dated lower right watercolor on paper 19 x 13.5 cm Framed 34 x 29 cm The framing is a little bit asymetrical as a part the right edge of the watercolor is missing. Casimir Brau-Simon was a painter and sculptor. He was born in Bagnère de Bigorre...

Deer From Behind is an original artwork realized by Ernest Rouart in the early XX Century. Pencil on paper; the back of the artwork is sketched in pencil. Passepartout included (48 x...