Count Mario Grixoni, Oval Portrait of Edwardian Lady –Early 20th-century drawing

Count Mario Grixoni Oval Portrait of an Edwardian Lady

Regular Price: £88.00

Sale Price: £88.00
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View the full Collection: William Burgess of Dover Collection (1805–1861)

An original early 20th-century graphite drawing, Count Mario Grixoni, Oval Portrait of an Edwardian Lady.

A fine small graphite portrait of an Edwardian lady by Count Mario Grixoni (1879–1946).

The paper is cut to an oval and laid down on backing paper. The drawing is accompanied by an albumen print photograph of the sitter, also cut to an oval shape.

This is one of two graphite portraits that we have for sale by Grixoni which appear to be of the same sitter (see JP-005).

Count Grixoni was born into a noble family in Genoa, Italy. Son and nephew of senior officers in the Army and Navy, the young Grixoni also embarked on a Naval career. His ancestry, however, also included Italian artists of renown, and at a young age his drawings attracted the attention of Grosso. Grixoni was soon to devote himself solely to his art and aged twenty-three he arrived in London with little money and three young children to support. He was to stay in London for over a quarter of a century, during which time he became close friends with leading portraitists John Singer Sargent and William Orpen. Grixoni also became known for his portraits, which retained the charm and grace of the Italian school style. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and the Salon de Paris, was a member of The Chelsea Arts Club, the St Johns Wood Arts Club, and was part of the Council of the Pastel Society and the Council of the Arts Club.

William Burgess of Dover Collection

This picture is one of an interesting assortment of pictures, which were acquired together from a single collector and include a number of works by the eminent Dover artist William Burgess (1805–1861). Burgess was a painter and drawing master, who specialised in local Dover subjects, which sometimes featured military and naval elements. There are further naval and marine connections in the collection, spanning the early Victorian era to the early 20th century, which indicate the collector was possibly of Naval descent; an address associated with the collection is at Lowestoft.

Artists of interest featured in the collection include marine artist Neville Sotheby Pitcher (1889–1959), and Count Mario Grixoni (1885–1945), who was son and nephew of senior officers of the Army and Navy, and who as a young man started a Naval career. There is also an early view on the Nile, and a World War Two sketch in India. In addition, the collection features a number of typical Victorian subjects, such as a portrait of Queen Victoria’s dog Dash, along with a canine sketch by the eminent British-American canine painter Maud Earl (1864–1943), whose select clientele included members of the British royal family.