Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1890s.
This superb triple portrait shows the Honourable Mrs.
(This house is now the Iranian Embassy and is famous for its siege and capture by the SAS in 1980).
Their father was Colonel George Denham-Cookes, and his son Arthur followed him into the army, becoming a captain in the 24th Battn. London Regiment.
Prior to this he had become an M.A. Trinity Hall, Cambridge and a Member of the Inner Temple.
Arthur had married, in 1916, Ursula Bloom, the novelist, and in 1917 they had a son, Pip Denham-Cooke. Tragically, having survived the First World War, Arthur died of influenza in November 1918 aged 27.
EDWARD HUGHES (1832–1908) was a highly successful painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy, The British Institute, and The Grosvenor Gallery, displaying over the period from 1847 to 1892 a total of 69 works. He is best known for his genre pieces in the manner of Thomas Faed and in his later career for his portraits of the aristocracy, which strongly recall the ‘fancy’ pictures of J. E. Millais. Feted by the Victorian elite, Hughes’s art commanded high prices; his early work displayed a Pre-Raphaelite attention to detail, and his pictures produced in the final parts of the century are lavish and showy in the manner of Victorian impressionism, with a flamboyant emphasis on bright tones and light effects.
Both idioms embody a sharp understanding of the subject. Hughes was admired by his fellow-artists and drew approving comments. Millais – whose work he imitated – was thoroughly impressed, noting how many artists could draw a man, but Hughes was distinguished by his capacity to ‘paint a portrait of a lady'.
{Simon Cooke, Ph.D The Victorian Web.}
SIZE:52 x 46 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: by direct descent through the family.
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1890s.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Triple Portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Denham - Cookes and Her Children 1896, by Edward Hughes.
