Woman Seated and Flower Studies (recto): Studies of Sheep (verso): Graphite/pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on white paper. The watercolour has been conserved and mounted on to blue laid paper ready for framing. Presented in a clear archival acid-free polyester sleeve.
Sheet: 5 7/8 x 3 5/8 in. (15 x 9.2 cm.)
Backing paper: 10 5/8 x 8 5/16 in. (27 x 21 cm.)
Provenance: The artist’s family by descent. This drawing was removed from a scrap book of watercolours and drawings belonging to James Smetham. Throughout his life Smetham had suffered from bouts of mental illness but it was in the fall of 1877 that he succumbed to a debilitating attack after which he withdrew from the world, he became delusional and virtually ceased talking. Almost a year had passed since his attack when he received the album compiled by his daughter Edie and her siblings. The album consisted of scraps of his works chosen from various sketch books. After a decade of emotional and psychological anguish, he died on February 5, 1889.
Included in the sale is a transcript of a letter written in 1878 by the artist’s daughter to her mother, with a passage explaining why the cover of the album is black instead of the green her mother requested.
More watercolours by James Smetham are available on our website.
Smetham, James (1821-1889)
James Smetham produced over four hundred paintings during his lifetime. Like his good friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a major influence on his art, Smetham was a poet as well as a painter. He also wrote criticisms and recorded fascinating details on many celebrated personages of his day. His paintings ranged from portraits to Biblical interpretations, arcadian vignettes and landscapes. Smetham had great hopes and complicated theories about how audiences would understand and buy his art, but he was sadly disappointed with critical response. However, he received praise from some eminent contemporaries like John Ruskin, George Frederick Watts and Dante Gabriel Rossetti who hailed his friends’ paintings as “the flower of modern art”.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION please contact Clayton
T: 01597 272 439
M: 07790 208 712
Antique Number: SA1134727
Dateline of this antique is 19th Century
Height is 27cm (10.6inches)
Width is 21cm (8.3inches)
Depth is 0cm (0.0inches)
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