Vanity
Original Oil Painting on Canvas
attributed to Daniel Maclise R.A. (1806-1870)
- Autograph works listed to £353,500 GBP ($565,690 USD) at auction.
- There are 45 paintings associated with this artist in the British National Art Collection.
- Painting - 61cm (24") x 51cm (20")
- Frame - 79cm (31") x 69cm (27")
Lot Notes
An extremely fine mid 19th century oil painting on canvas depicting finely dressed figures in an opulent interior. The gentleman seated in the foreground holds a mirror to reflect the lavish beauty of the lady standing. An exceptional example of mid 19th century genre painting. The painting is not signed.
Maclise's work realises many thousands of pounds at auction, please see the photograph section of this listing for recent examples.
Condition
The painting is in very fine condition. The canvas not lined, torn, patched or repaired. There are some small areas of touching in to the background and to the dress in the foreground though without any significant restoration. There is fine craquelure in certain passages. Clean, most attractive and ready to hang. Presented in a good restored 19th century wood and gilt composite frame.
Artist Information
Daniel Maclise was an Irish history, literary and portrait painter, and illustrator, who worked for most of his life in London, England. Maclise was born in Cork City, Ireland, the son of Alexander McLish (also known as McLeish, McLish, McCLisse or McLise), a tanner or shoemaker, but formerly a Scottish Highlander soldier. His education was of the plainest kind, but he was eager for culture, fond of reading, and anxious to become an artist. His father, however, placed him in employment, in 1820, in Newenham's Bank, where he remained for two years, before leaving to study at the Cork School of Art. In 1825 it happened that Sir Walter Scott was travelling in Ireland, and young Maclise, having seen him in a bookseller's shop, made a surreptitious sketch of the great man, which he afterwards lithographed. It became very popular, and led to many commissions for portraits, which he executed, in pencil. Various influential friends recognised Maclise's genius and promise, and were anxious to furnish him with the means of studying in London; but refusing all financial assistance, he saved the money himself and arrived in the capital on 18 July 1827. There he made a sketch of Charles John Kean, the actor, which, like his portrait of Scott, was lithographed and published, making the artist a considerable sum. He entered the Royal Academy schools in 1828, eventually being awarded the highest prizes open to students. Maclise exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1829. Gradually he began to confine himself more exclusively to subject and historical pictures, varied occasionally by portraits – such as those of Lord Campbell, novelist Letitia Landon, Dickens, and other of his literary friends. In 1833, he exhibited two pictures which greatly increased his reputation, and in 1835 the Chivalric Vow of the Ladies and the Peacock procured his election as associate of the Academy, of which he became full member in 1840. The years that followed were occupied with a long series of figure pictures, deriving their subjects from history and tradition and from the works of Shakespeare, Goldsmith and Le Sage. He also designed illustrations for several of Dickens's Christmas books and other works. Between the years 1830 and 1836 he contributed to Fraser's Magazine, under the pseudonym of Alfred Croquis, a remarkable series of portraits of the literary and other celebrities of the time – character studies, etched or lithographed in outline, and touched more or less with the emphasis of the caricaturist, which were afterwards published as the Maclise Portrait Gallery (1871). During the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament in London in 1834–1850 by Charles Barry, Maclise was commissioned in 1846 to paint murals in the House of Lords on such subjects as Justice and Chivalry. In 1858, Maclise commenced one of the two great monumental works of his life, The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher, on the walls of Westminster Palace. It was begun in fresco, a process which proved unmanageable. The artist wished to resign the task, but, encouraged by Prince Albert, he studied in Berlin the new method of water-glass painting, and carried out the subject and its companion, The Death of Nelson, in that medium, completing the latter painting in 1864. Maclise's vast painting of The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife (1854) hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. It portrays the marriage of the main Norman conqueror of Ireland "Strongbow" to the daughter of his Gaelic ally. By the grand staircase of Halifax Town Hall, which was completed in 1863, there is a wall painting by Maclise. The intense application which he gave to these great historic works, and various circumstances connected with the commission, had a serious effect on the artist's health. He began to shun the company in which he formerly delighted, his old buoyancy of spirits was gone, and when, in 1865, the presidency of the Royal Academy was offered to him he declined the honour. He died of acute pneumonia on 25 April 1870 at his home 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. His works are distinguished by powerful intellectual and imaginative qualities, but somewhat marred by harsh and dull colouring, by metallic hardness of surface and texture, and by frequent touches of the theatrical in the action and attitudes of the figures. His fame rests most securely on his two greatest works at Westminster. A memoir of Maclise, by his friend William Justin O'Driscoll, was published in 1871.
General Information
Hang your investments on the wall
Art has long been regarded as a strong and safe investment. Ellen Kelleher a personal finance reporter for The Financial Times recently wrote an article recommending art, particularly in the $500 - $50,000 range as a sound long term investment with an impressive current average annual increase of 9.7 percent. See Hang your investments on the wall by Ellen Kelleher Published October 22 2010 by the Financial Times.
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Priory Fine Art specialises in high quality 17th - 20th Century British and European Fine Art. Our team have a combined experience of over 80 years in the field of fine art and have together handled the sale of many millions of pounds worth of art. As well as our own team of specialists we have close contacts from the leading auction houses who often assist us with particular pieces.
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Certificate of Authenticity
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- where the bold coloured text which forms the listing's heading reads 'by' and is followed by the artist's full name (or the artist's initials, if his full name is unrecorded), the work is in our opinion by the artist;
- where the expression "attributed to" is used, the work is in our opinion possibly a work by the artist, in whole or in part;
- where the expression 'circle of' is used, the work is in our opinion a work of the period of the artist and showing his influence;
- where the expression 'follower of' is used, the work is in our opinion a work executed in the artist's style but not necessarily by a pupil;
- where the expression 'manner of' is used, the work is in our opinion a work executed in the artist's style but of a later date;
- where the term "after" is used, the work is in our opinion a copy or pastiche (of any date) of a work by the artist. Where the term 'signed...' is used in our opinion the work has been signed by the artist, where the term 'with signature...' or 'bears signature...' is used in our opinion the signature is by a hand other than that of the artist.
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