Pieter de Hooch

Reading Woman

Unknown

Oil painting depicting a woman in a mirror with an animal backbone visible where her backbone would be, and a giant eye peering on. Expressionist and emotional, the space is engagin...

Charles Hunt Jnr British, (1829-1900) A Deal to be Done Oil on canvas, signed Image size: 24.75 inches x 34.75 inches Size including frame: 32.25 inches x 42.25 inches A superb genre painting of two men and a boy with donkeys and other animals in cottage by Charles Hunt. Two men are depicted conversing at a table in rustic surroundings as a boy watches on. Meanwhile, two donkeys and a pig can be seen chewing the leaves of a turnip on the floor nearby as a small dog stares out at the viewer. Through the open door to the far left, we are shown a glimpse of a garden path leading to a gate with trees and a landscape beyond. Charles Hunt was a genre and figure painter born in Kensington, London in 1829. His sons Reuben Hunt...

Charles Hunt Jnr British, (1829-1900) A Visitor Calls Oil on canvas, signed Image size: 24.75 inches x 34.75 inches Size including frame: 32.25 inches x 42.25 inches A wonderful genre painting by Charles Hunt of two men and two boys with horses and other animals in a cottage. A farmer and his two sons can be seen eating lunch at a table in rustic interior as a visitor approaches. Perhaps encouraged by the boys, a piglet seems to have found its way onto the table whilst a rabbit and guinea pig eat cabbage leaves on the floor. To the far right, a horse is shown in a stable area along with some piglets. To the far left, a terrier waits on the step by its master. Charles Hunt was a genre and figure painter born in Kensington, London in 1829. His sons Reuben Hunt...

ARTHUR BOYD HOUGHTON (1836-1875) Sunday Afternoon Signed l.l.: Houghton Oil on canvas Framed 20.5 by 25.5 cm., 8 by 10 in. (frame size 30.5 by 34.5 cm., 12 by 13 ½ in.) Provenance: William Drummond; Private collection. Probably painted in 1864, the present work evokes the peaceful contentment of everyday family life, with its small scale further reinforcing the intimacy of the scene. It is one of a series of small intimate family scenes produced during this happy period of his life. A male figure, possibly the artist’s himself, slumbers in a chair, a handkerchief draped over his face whilst Susan, the artist’s young wife reads by the window. Their child, either Arthur or Georgina, plays on the floor with a discarded newspaper. The room is at 4 Adelaide Villas, St Mary’s Grove, Richmond, the house Arthur and Susan moved to shortly after their marriage in 1861. The chaise and window, with its pots of geraniums, also feature in the 1864 painting Coach and Horses (private collection) which depicts Susan, with her hair down, playing with Arthur and Georgina. A pot of daffodils placed beside the same geraniums in the present work suggest it may have been painted in the spring of that year. Such domestic bliss would shortly come to a tragic end when Susan died of pyaemia following the birth of their third child in June 1864. Houghton was born in India, the son of a captain in the East India Company’s marine service. Both is father and older brother were accomplished military draughtsmen and he probably received early training from them. His family returned to England in the early 1850s and he began studies at Leigh’s and the Langham...