FEATURES ARCHIVE

How did you come to be involved with Victorian art?
I have always loved the Victorians’ response to landscape – those artists who followed Ruskin’s dictum of observing nature: ‘selecting nothing, rejecting nothing and scorning nothing’. I’m particularly keen on the so-called Liverpool Pre-Raphaelites’ work in landscape – although sadly we see little of it passing through the rooms.

What is especially fascinating about collecting Victorian art?
Our collectors have a very keen appreciation of technique. These are technically accomplished, skilful pictures that give a lot of pleasure. The variety in the field is also very exciting. I’m delighted that so many new collectors are finding their way to our Victorian & British Impressionist Pictures sales. Many of them browse the internet and are really surprised by the breadth of subject-matter and the range of styles that each sale encompasses. Because the subjects are easily comprehensible, purchasers are no longer predominantly English; in recent sales we have had interest from the Middle East and China, as well as further afield. There really is something for everyone.

And the three paintings here really show that variety.
Yes, we are fortunate this season to offer exceptional examples of works executed at different periods throughout Queen Victoria’s long reign. Frith’s crowd scenes were immensely popular in his lifetime, and his Ramsgate Sands entered the Royal Collection. Praised by Turner An English Merry Making entered the collection of the 5th Earl of Carysfort who assembled an extremely fine group of paintings by contemporary artists, to complement his family’s portraits by Reynolds, and works by Old Masters. Solomon J Solomon’s Eve is a classical nude that acknowledges a debt to Old Master prototypes. It presents as a semi-secular altarpiece – a paean to female beauty. Frampton’s Our Lady of Promise is a more overtly devotional piece. Its jewel like colour and stylized formality betrays the artist’s apprenticeship to his father, a stained glass designer.

These are wonderful works by very established names, but are there still undiscovered gems out there?
It is still one of the greatest thrills to present to the market pictures that have lapsed into obscurity, tucked away in family collections and unexhibited. This season we are delighted to be offering a group of works by La Thangue which have passed by descent from an early patron of the artist. We also have three portraits by the rarely seen George Spencer Watson, who was a wonderfully assured talent in the early years of the last century. I think there is great scope to revive the reputations of neglected artists. This is going to be one of the great challenges for the remainder of my career!

The sale is now entitled Victorian & British Impressionist Pictures. Can you explain what motivated this expansion?
We’ve noticed a trend towards collecting works executed towards the end of the 19th century. At that time artists would often train in France, and the new techniques they learnt really reinvigorated painting in Britain. Palettes became noticeably lighter, and it became popular to paint with a square brush to give breadth and solidity to figures. Owing to the influence of photography, these paintings are startlingly naturalistic and timeless and are without sentiment. They are becoming increasingly sought after.