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Lot Essay
This remarkably large and impressive watercolour is widely considered Rheam’s masterpiece and has held the world record price for a work by him for over twenty-five years. It was illustrated in the catalogue in both the exhibitions of 1899 and the Athenaeum, loc.cit. although not unequivocal in its praise, noted that, 'There is much power of a kind in Mr Rheam's Sleeping Beauty... the watchful youth and the girl [who is] reclining under a wonderfully coloured quilt, to paint which was the real case of the picture...'.
Sleeping Beauty became a popular subject among Victorian artists, with a number of artists depicting the concept in very different styles. Daniel Maclise’s (1806-1870) version (1840, Hartlepool Art Gallery) is a historical costume painting in which the sleeping beauty in a medieval hall is surrounded by angels flying in through the window. Perhaps the earliest written version of the story was Charles Perrault’s 1697 The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, but it was translated from the French and re-written several times in the 19th century, bringing its narrative to the fore. The romantic imagery and symbolism of the story particularly appealed to the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers, and so in the latter part of the century it became a frequent subject, Burne-Jones’s Briar Rose series, 1871-1890 (Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park) whose title was taken from the Brothers Grimm version of Perrault’s story, was the zenith of these pictures, but they had originated in designs for sets of decorative tiles that he had made for Morris and Co. in the early 1860s, one of the most ambitious illustrated the tale of Sleeping Beauty.
Rheam was born into a Quaker family in Birkenhead, and was exhibiting in London in 1887 but circa1 890 he moved to Cornwall, settling first at Polperro and then at Newlyn, where he was lured by Stanhope Forbes who persuaded him to join the local cricket team for their annual match against St Ives, though the move was probably encouraged by his cousin Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929), who lived in Falmouth but often visited Newlyn and was well known within the artistic community that had grown up there in the 1880s. Rheam lived in Cornwall for most of his life, ending his days in Penzance. Artistically he pursued a distinct path within the Newlyn School in exploring fantasy and symbolism as with the present watercolour. At the opening exhibition of Newlyn Art Gallery, 1895, a reviewer commented, 'Among the watercolour men who choose figure subjects Mr Rheam is conspicuous'. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1887 to 1919, and was a regular contributor to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, where the present watercolour was shown.
Sleeping Beauty became a popular subject among Victorian artists, with a number of artists depicting the concept in very different styles. Daniel Maclise’s (1806-1870) version (1840, Hartlepool Art Gallery) is a historical costume painting in which the sleeping beauty in a medieval hall is surrounded by angels flying in through the window. Perhaps the earliest written version of the story was Charles Perrault’s 1697 The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, but it was translated from the French and re-written several times in the 19th century, bringing its narrative to the fore. The romantic imagery and symbolism of the story particularly appealed to the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers, and so in the latter part of the century it became a frequent subject, Burne-Jones’s Briar Rose series, 1871-1890 (Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park) whose title was taken from the Brothers Grimm version of Perrault’s story, was the zenith of these pictures, but they had originated in designs for sets of decorative tiles that he had made for Morris and Co. in the early 1860s, one of the most ambitious illustrated the tale of Sleeping Beauty.
Rheam was born into a Quaker family in Birkenhead, and was exhibiting in London in 1887 but circa1 890 he moved to Cornwall, settling first at Polperro and then at Newlyn, where he was lured by Stanhope Forbes who persuaded him to join the local cricket team for their annual match against St Ives, though the move was probably encouraged by his cousin Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929), who lived in Falmouth but often visited Newlyn and was well known within the artistic community that had grown up there in the 1880s. Rheam lived in Cornwall for most of his life, ending his days in Penzance. Artistically he pursued a distinct path within the Newlyn School in exploring fantasy and symbolism as with the present watercolour. At the opening exhibition of Newlyn Art Gallery, 1895, a reviewer commented, 'Among the watercolour men who choose figure subjects Mr Rheam is conspicuous'. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1887 to 1919, and was a regular contributor to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, where the present watercolour was shown.