David Bates b.1840

David Bates, Forest View With Distant Peaks, North Wales, Antique Oil Painting

1889

This buoyant late 19th-century oil painting by Danish artist Niels Frederik Schiøttz-Jensen (1855-1941) depicts a coastal view in Capri, Italy, with a travelling family. Schiøttz-Jen...

This mid-19th-century oil painting by Danish-American artist Joachim Ferdinand Richardt (1819-1895) depicts a congregation observing a river baptism, probably in the Mississippi River. In 2009, at President Obama’s Inauguration luncheon, a panoramic view of Niagara was selected as the backdrop to his speech. It’s a breathtaking image, capturing the sublimity of the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls in all their iconic majesty. The ‘Maid-of-the-Mist’, negotiates the rapids, a mere speck within a broad expanse of water. While beyond, a colossal sheet of spray is sharply illuminated through passing clouds. It was painted by the son of a bookbinder, a humble Danish artist who travelled extensively across the United States to document its nature, buildings and civilization. Admired in his own lifetime, this unassuming adventurer produced scores of resplendent vistas but also numerous vignettes documenting everyday activities. Joachim Ferdinand Richardt was initially destined to become a carpenter but, thankfully, enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under three distinguished masters. Blessed with a skill for drawing, he was awarded medals and in 1839 began exhibiting at the prestigious Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition. In 1841, the Danish Royal Family acquired one of his works and six years later granted him a five-year stipend. Richardt trained at a time of exceptional creative output whereby Denmark was developing a clearer identity. Dubbed ‘National Romanticism’, artists were extolling their country’s natural beauty, while also celebrating humble folk life within rural environs. Stylistically, their work is somewhat comparable with German Romanticism...

Signed lower right "Nasmyth" leading to one of the whole pleiad of renowned Scottish artists starting with Alexander Nasmyth (1758 -1840). This painting showcases a scene of a landscape with shallow water, where a family is seen wading through a river ford in knee-deep water. The presence of a shepherdess on a high bank, observing the travelers with keen interest, adds a sense of pastoral charm to the composition. One of the focal points of the painting is a picturesque tree that has fallen into the river, adding a touch of drama to the overall scene. The contrast between the lush woodland and bushes on the right side of the foreground and the rolling valley on the left side further enhances the depth and perspective of the painting and superbly illustrates the traditions of the early 19th century British Art...

This original and unique detailed landscape scene of a rural cottage by a stream is by the artist O. J. Clark, English School. Signed lower right, with the cottage scene dated ’85 and is over 100 years old. Clark was an English Landscape painter...