John Ridgewell Portrait of Herbert Thorpe " The Prophet of Meltham " 1980

Click the photographs to enlarge which are part of the visual description.  Colours may differ due to any flash used.  

 It is a funny old world ART & PAINTINGS don't you think ? I bought this original oil painting a number of years ago now in a live auction because I liked the subject matter as this is an unusual painting type for this artist. There were a number of his paintings on sale that day and the others were the usual type of strange trees, hedges and gateways and I bought a couple of those as well. They sold for the auction market value of the day. This particular painting sold to me for considerably more than estimate, with interest in the room as well as a telephone bid which is what auctions are all about. It was one of those items I was GOING to buy no matter what. I am really pleased I did.  I like to buy one off quirky items and this portrait fits well into my collecting themes. Herbert has been admired by every person that has laid eyes on him and I see him everyday and I never tire of seeing him stood in his front garden.  

Everyday its like the first time I laid eyes on it which is strange in itself.

So to all John Ridgewell collectors I have this painting on my ebay for you all to LOOK at and enjoy it as I do. It is a really fabulous portrait.  

Here is a fabulous and most unusual original portrait painting titled Mr Thorpe - The Prophet of Meltham by the famous painter John Ridgewell - Surrealist British Artist 1937 - 2004. 
Originally it had been described as its title Mr Thorpe " The prophet of Masham " .... Masham is a small town in North Yorkshire famous for its Breweries where I grew up and I had never heard of this chap before.
It is signed down below the hand gate on the path J Ridgewell.....it has the Fischer label on the back as well as another small bit of paper signed John Ridgewell.
 
The second black board down with the wording, at the bottom it has Writer HERBERT THORPE ..which I had not seen before.
I googled the John Ridgewell artist website... that is very interesting and I found this painting quite easy under PORTRAITS ... you will notice here that John Ridgewell did not usually paint in this way... they are nearly all a bit strange and I do not mean that in a bad way.. this painting is fairly normal compared to his other work.... and it says on there.
A rare actual portrait, although Mr Thorpe is secondary to the house. Not made up, this man and his house were absolutely real.
It had originally said he was "The Prophet of Masham" ..... but I emailed the website owner and told him of my discoveries and it has now been changed to my findings "The Prophet of Meltham"

So I looked at all the info on google about Herbert Thorpe.....a fascinating man and famous in his own right... his neighbours may not have been too thrilled with him though from what I can read ... but Getty Images like him.. and you can see any number of real photographs of the man - his house - his slogans and you will find this painting on websites too. 

Also you will see that the TV Comedian Dave Allen from the 1970's ... did two special programmes about English Eccentrics ..called "In Search of the Great English Eccentrics" and "Eccentrics at Play" ......  Herbert Thorpe is on the Eccentrics at Play ... filmed in 1974. I have been UNABLE to see the programme though, if anyone has a copy of it I would be most interested to see it or buy a copy from you. 

The Getty images you will see date back to around 1968 when Herbert was about 71 years old, he is said to have died in 1978,  check them out for the house and compare this painting to the actual photographs.... you will see on the painting there are 3 chimney pots, the central chimney pot is that of the adjoining house behind..it faces the road... it is a gable end chimney ... you can see this from the slope of the tabling just on the ridgeline...see the electric cables too which are attached to the house front wall....the downfall pipes as well as the stone window lintels.
I even had a view of the house on STREET VIEW .... maps..... where you can walk down the road and do a 360 degree of the actual house from the side, the house has a cream or white painted gable end,  as well as the same garden front but no gate now. The large boarding between it and the neighbours has gone, the side wall is stepped in three, this is the same and the far left chimney has been raised as well.  Compare this virtual tour to the Getty Images as well as this painting and you can see the house today,  the right hand end chimney pot has been taken off his property. I have been unable to get a real photo of the property as it looks today but I am sure there will be many folks that know it well, drive past it often as well as those of you like me,  that want to google it and walk past it on your laptop.

It is on MILL MOOR Road.

On the actual painting the paint work is cracked a little in places on the canvas, top left side, between the chimneys. Its oil on canvas and in a simple Pine wood frame. It has a little wood worm actually the frame, top left corner. 

The frame is 25 and 3/4 inch wide x  30 and 3/4 inch tall x 1 and an 1/4 inch deep frame.

There will be living relations of Herbert Thorpe as well I am sure and they may not even know about this painting of him,  it really is a fabulous painting and I am happy to own it until another person with the same interest and enthusiasm for him wants to buy him from me.
I can see this type of painting hanging in the National Portrait Gallery sometime in its life, it is that interesting & different.

It is one of John Ridgewell's most unusual paintings in my opinion,  not his normal work. Check out the John Ridgewell paintings that come up for sale in the live auctions. 

Yes this painting has a huge £ ticket price and the only reason for that is I do not want to sell it anymore. I bought it and was happy to move it on as I do with my stock but since looking at Herbert everyday I do not really want to sell him now. I am happy for everyone to see it here so that anyone into John Ridgewell's paintings can see his completely different style in this particular painting. Someone did say going on auction prices of his work this is overpriced. YES, I agree it is. That is their opinion, they may well be an avid Ridgewell painting collector and they want it so badly they are trying to teach granny to suck eggs ! That person forgets that this particular painting is a rare one being a portrait of an actual living person. Every so often an item is priced well over the estimate of what experts think. I see it every day in live auctions. Recently a Medieval illuminated manuscript one of about 6 known of the 14th Century estimate 10-20K, I thought its easy worth 40K actually sold for a staggering 95K plus % commission.  

So I have increased the price of The Prophet of Meltham just because I can and I really do not like it when someone tries to tell me what price I should be selling my items for.  You should be happy that you can see the FANTASTIC one off painting EVERYDAY like I can ! 

Google below for interesting websites relating to this painting and artist, one is not allowed to add google site links anymore so you will have to do that for yourselves.





  See the photographs which enlarge.

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