Sellingantiques.co.uk Logo
 2,103 visitors today 0 antiques approved today
ANTIQUE #SA1118967

Interesting Watercolour (early 19th Century) Set Design For Pérouse; Or The Desolate Island

£275    $343    €330
Set Design for Pérouse; or The Desolate Island (early 19th century)
 
Possibly by one of the Grieve Family of Theatre Set Designers
 
Watercolour over pencil with pen and brown ink on laid paper. The watercolour is unsigned but is inscribed on the back in pen and brown ink: 2d Act – Scene 9th Perouse - In Bromley
 
Sheet: 6 1/4 x 7 7/8 in. (15.8 x 20 cm.)
 
This item is to be sold without a mount or frame and will be delivered in a clear polyester archival sleeve.
 
English scene painters, the Grieve dynasty, were pre-eminent among nineteenth-century stage designers. They spanned three generations: the scion, John Henderson (1770–1845); his sons Thomas (1799–1882) and William (1800–44), and Thomas Walford (1841–82). Examples of their work can be seen on the website of the V&A.
 
The La Pérouse expedition was an ill-fated voyage of exploration that left France in 1785 with two frigates under the command of Jean-François de Galaup de La Pérouse, and disappeared three years later in the South Pacific. Part of the early mystique of the La Pérouse story was that for almost forty years no one knew what had become of the expedition.
 
La Pérouse and his men had not been missing ten years before fictional speculations about their fate began to appear on stage and in print. One of the earliest and most successful of these was La Peyrouse, a Drama in Two Acts, written in 1797 by the popular and prolific German playwright August von Kotzebue. In the play, La Pérouse is the lone survivor of the wreck. He’s on a small island in the South Pacific with Malvina, a native woman who has forsaken her violent family to be with La Pérouse and their son, Charles. The play takes place on the day when a French ship shows up and finds La Pérouse. Awkwardly, the ship’s passengers include La Pérouse’s wife, Adelaide (not her name in real life), and their youngest child, Henry (in real life, the La Pérouses had no children). Melodramatic hijinks ensue, with each woman trying to claim h...
Antique #SA1118967, shown on this page, originates from the regency Era. For historical context, the timeline below highlights the period when it was made:
The Regency Era
Famous inventions historic timeline graphic to help to give historical context to the date of this antique.
CONTACT DETAILS OF SELLER:
RADNORSHIRE FINE ARTS LTD PROFILE PHOTO WHICH LINKS TO DEALER PAGE
Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd
Specialists in paintings, watercolours, prints and drawings from the 17th to the 20th century
Powys
United Kingdom
TELEPHONE SELLER
01597 272 439 or
07790 208 712
EMAIL SELLER
EXTRA RESOURCES
HISTORIC TIMELINE OPTIONS