{"title":"Oil","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"manner-of-johann-georg-meyer-von-bremen-girl-with-flowers-c19th-oil-painting-jp-550","title":"Manner of Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen, Girl with Flowers – C19th oil painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original mid-19th-century oil painting, Manner of Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen, Hessian Peasant Girl with Flower Basket.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA captivating small oil painting, full of charm. A Hessian German peasant girl in bonnet and red dress stands in the shade of soft foliage, surrounded by delicate flower blossoms. Shadowy cloisters to the right contrast with the bright patch of sunlight cast to the left.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis subject and the treatment of foliage is highly characteristic of Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen (1813–1886), a German painter associated with the Düsseldorf School of painting, who specialised in Biblical, peasant, and family scenes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeyer studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow. In 1841, he opened a studio of his own and in 1853 he moved to Berlin as his fame increased. His early works were often scenes from the Bible, but he later turned his attention to incidents from popular life, especially among the Hessian peasantry, and the portrayal of family life, including spirited depictions of children. He was a member of the Amsterdam Academy and was awarded the Order of Leopold and Medal in Philadelphia in 1876.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn oil paint on unstretched canvas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51998074798409,"sku":"JP-550","price":495.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/jp-550_2.jpg?v=1743183006"},{"product_id":"george-mortram-moorhouse-love-in-a-mist-still-life-early-c20th-oil-painting-jy-975","title":"George Mortram Moorhouse, 'Love-in-a-Mist' Still Life – early C20th oil painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original early 20th-century oil painting, George Mortram Moorhouse, 'Love-in-a-Mist' Flowers Still Life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA lovely early 20th-century still-life oil painting by watercolourist, pastellist and engraver George Mortram Moorhouse (1882–1960). The flowers in the still life are blue and pink 'love-in-a-mist' flowers, or Nigella damascena, a charming old-fashioned wildflower that blooms in spring and early summer, often associated with cottage gardens, fields and roadsides. Its finely divided leaves form a lacy 'mist' surrounding the jewel-like flowers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMortram Moorhouse often painted in an ethereal style, choosing naturalistic subjects but rendering them in a softly blended technique that evoked a sense of atmosphere and spontaneity. In this still life he beautifully captures the short lived vitality of cut wildflowers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeorge Mortram Moorhouse (1882–1960) studied at Lancaster School of Art and privately under illustrious teachers including Sir William Orpen, Frank Brangwyn and Augustus John. He was married to the artist Blanche Moorhouse. Both George and Blanche were long-standing members of the Lake Artists' Society, which was founded in 1904 to promote and exhibit works connected with Cumbria and the Lake District. George served as the Society's president from 1946 to 1949. At the time of painting, Moorhouse's address is given as Low House, Helsington, which is in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoorhouse's works have sold at Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams on a number of occasions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn canvas on stretchers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52019019645257,"sku":"JY-975","price":325.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/jy-975.jpg?v=1743507921"},{"product_id":"georgina-lara-the-wayside-inn-original-1862-oil-painting-ka-286","title":"Georgina Lara, The Wayside Inn – Original 1862 oil painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original 1862 oil painting, Georgina Lara, The Wayside Inn.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis jewel of an oil painting by mid-Victorian artist Georgina Lara (fl.1862–1971) shows an archetypal scene of rustic village life. Depicted is a wayside inn, under proprietor G. Hobbs, with an abundance of small figures and animals populating the scene. The atmosphere is one of easy geniality and humble everyday activity. Whilst the Victorian coaching inn played a major role in the growing transportation system of England, the emphasis here is on the rural community—presenting an idealised pastoral view that would likely be readily received by the growing urban population.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeorgina Lara painted consistently on the theme of rural life, in a style reminiscent of 17th-century Dutch genre painting. Intricately detailed and densely populated, it recalls the highly prized work of artists such as Jan Steen (c.1626–1679), which elevated lowly peasant life to the status of history painting. Lara's work is highly collectable, with examples in the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery \u0026amp; Museum. Active throughout the 1860s, she exhibited sixteen works at the Royal Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street and also at the British Institution.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLittle is known about Georgina Lara's life and research around her name only serves to further obfuscate her identity. Our painting is signed 'G. Lara', but there were in fact a number of different artist names used at this time on works bearing a very close resemblance to each other. Some are signed Edwina Lara; others are signed Edward Masters, who also went by the name of Edwin Masters, Thomas Masters and William Masters. The works are so similar that some believe the artists to be one and the same.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt appears that there were multiple members of the Lara family that were recorded as artists, including William Paul Lara and his children Clara Georgina Maud Lara, Ernest Lara and Percy Leslie Lara. It is possible that various members of the family collaborated or worked together for a local dealer. It is interesting that a woman's name is readily used in Georgina's case, and we are hopeful that the skilled hand behind many of the paintings is indeed female.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis example of her work is an attractive compact size with a delicate frame, making the picture elegant rather than imposing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOil on canvas. Presented in an antique swept gilt gesso and wood frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eImage size: 22 x 32cm. Frame size: 31 x 41.5cm.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52020370047305,"sku":"KA-286","price":895.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/ka-286.jpg?v=1743514180"},{"product_id":"fritz-muhsam-blue-vase-with-flowers-still-life-early-20th-century-oil-painting-kb-186","title":"Fritz Mühsam, Blue Vase with Flowers Still life –early 20th-century oil painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original early 20th-century oil painting, Fritz Mühsam, Blue Vase with Flowers Still Life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA wonderful floral still life painting, likely painted in the 1930s, by interesting modernist German artist Fritz Mühsam (1880–1946). Mühsam was born in Hamburg and later worked in Berlin and Paris, where he produced paintings with Cubist and Expressionist influences.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe juxtaposition of colours, applied in pure, gestural dabs makes this painting part-figurative still life, part-study in colour and form. The background is painted in a block of flattened blue, a colour very close to that of the vase (and in fact forming the highlights of the vase), giving the overall composition a post-impressionist, decorative quality, redolent of Van Gogh's sunflowers where the yellow vase melds into yellow background.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn oil paint on board.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInscribed on the verso 'Mrs Lionel Fraser', suggesting that the painting was previously owned by the wife of Lionel Fraser (1895–1965), the British banker and self-made millionaire, whose son was the influential London art dealer Robert Fraser.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52021401682249,"sku":"KB-186","price":495.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/kb-186.jpg?v=1743520384"},{"product_id":"john-stirling-portrait-pair-scottish-cleric-his-wife-1851-oil-paintings-kb-313","title":"John Stirling, Portrait Pair, Scottish Cleric \u0026 His Wife – 1851 oil paintings","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original 1851 oil painting, John Stirling, Portraits of a Scottish Professor or Cleric \u0026amp; His Wife.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis impressive pair of mid-19th-century portraits are by the Scottish artist John Stirling (1820–1871).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhilst the identity of the sitters is unknown, they are likely to be Scottish and the male portrait indicates that this was a man of learning: the black gown and 'preaching bands' collar indicate the possession of an advanced university degree and were items worn by professors and lawyers as well as clerics. The sumptuous draped red curtain is a compositional device that was used by great portraitists such as Anthony Van Dyck and Sir Thomas Lawrence, to create both a sense of grandeur and intrigue. The hint of a bookshelf behind the curtain alludes to the sitter's learning. Rather unusually, the gentleman wears one black glove. Gloves have been used in Western portraiture throughout history, charged with symbolic significance—emblematic of fidelity and loyalty. Perhaps here of significance is the attention drawn to the ungloved hand, refined and poised—ready to extract a book from the shelf, or representing the capacity for human care.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe woman, presumed to be the gentleman's wife, is dressed in smart finery and sports the fashionable ringlet hairstyle of the day. Her setting associates her closely with nature, in a manner that recalls Gainsborough: not only does the abundantly leaved tree arch behind her but also her chair itself is constructed out of a natural branch, entwined with ivy. The portrait therefore fulfils Romantic tastes for landscape and a greater informality in portrait painting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePainted on Charles Roberson \u0026amp; Co., 51 Long Acre, London board. Additionally the female portrait bears the label of Gifford \u0026amp; Mair Carvers \u0026amp; Gilders, 163 Union Street, Aberdeen, on the reverse side of the board.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe paintings are presented in matching substantial 19th-century gesso and wood gilt frames.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eImage size: 39.5 x 32cm. Frame size: 56 x 48.5cm (each).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52021421637961,"sku":"KB-313","price":1400.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/kb-313_1.jpg?v=1743520578"},{"product_id":"edith-lydia-proctor-view-of-santa-maria-della-salute-on-the-grand-canal-venice-original-1900-oil-painting-ka-970","title":"Edith Lydia Proctor, View of Santa Maria della Salute on the Grand Canal, Venice – 1900 oil painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original 1900 oil painting – Edith Lydia Proctor, View of Santa Maria della Salute on the Grand Canal, Venice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis fine veduta oil of compelling charm shows an iconic view on the Grand Canal in Venice. The bustle of figures in the foreground captures a slice of life at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries on the Venetian waterside: finely dressed tourists gather to be transported by gondola while barefooted local figures sell vegetables on the quay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe painting is in the unmistakable veduta style, which had its origins in the 18th-century work of Canaletto. Canaletto's grand and intricate compositions reflected the 'stage-set'-like quality of the buildings of Venice. Whilst seemingly topographically accurate, he would often distort and manipulate views to suit his pictorial ends. This painting evidences the enduring popularity of the Canaletto's Venice in Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis oil appears to be by an unlisted female hand, signed and dated 'Edith Lydia Proctor 1900' on the reverse. The canvas itself, Kemp \u0026amp; Co, Holden Terrace, Pimlico, dates from somewhat earlier, 1877–89.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOil on canvas in a gilt wood frame.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53629890036041,"sku":"KA-970","price":895.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/KA-970.jpg?v=1767877524"},{"product_id":"arthur-croft-mitchell-the-orange-dress-original-1920s-oil-painting-kc-978","title":"Arthur Croft Mitchell, The Orange Dress – 1920s oil painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original 1920s oil painting – Arthur Croft Mitchell, The Orange Dress.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA stunning large-scale decorative work by the English artist Arthur Croft Mitchell (1872–1956). The painting, titled 'The Orange Dress', shows a beautiful young woman in 1920s dress sitting on high above a coastal backdrop, bathed in soft warm light.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe model in the painting is likely the artist's new wife, Evelyn Violet Ware (known as Molly), who was fourteen years his junior and became his enduring muse. The couple married in 1926, and that same year both husband and wife painted views at Ragusa, Sicily. Was this clifftop precipice also inspired by Sicily's dramatic coastline?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe painting embodies an Art Deco aesthetic, drawing on classical references, in the geometric stone plinth, and also art historical allusions—with Mitchell's languid muse Venus-like against the ocean vista and bearing more than a passing resemblance to Vermeer's turbaned Girl with a Pearl Earring.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMitchell was particularly known for his portraits and psychologically charged interiors, and had great admiration for Vermeer. He was taught at the Slade by Philip Wilson Steer (1860–1942), whose impressionistic style was an influence, and 'The Orange Dress' can be seen to be within the context of Steer and James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) who both depicted young ladies at leisure and used the sitter's dress as the painting's name. In doing so the painting is not so much a portrait as a meditation on aesthetics, colour and form. Mitchell's painting is also monumental in scale, another device that takes the work into the realm of decorative mural.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOil on canvas in a substantial period gilt frame.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53629892034889,"sku":"KC-978","price":995.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/KC-978.jpg?v=1767877537"},{"product_id":"tate-adams-mystical-monks-in-saffron-robes-original-c-1943-oil-painting-kd-187","title":"Attrib. Tate Adams, Mystical Monks in Saffron Robes – c.1943 oil painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original c.1943 oil painting – Attrib. Tate Adams, Mystical Monks in Saffron Robes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA striking painting attributed to the Irish Australian artist Tate Adams (1922–2018), showing Buddhist monks in saffron robes. During World War Two, Tate Adams served as a draftsman with the British Admiralty and was transferred to Ceylon, where he is said to have made friends with a Buddhist monk and the two painted and visited galleries together. Several of Adams's Ceylon works were exhibited at his first joint exhibition, with Gerard Dillon, organised by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts in 1949. The present painting is symbolist in style, as were a number of Adams's portraits, including an impressive series depicting the Irish writer Brendan Behan, painted in 1960.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOil paint on canvas board (32 x 27cm).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53800899969353,"sku":"KD-187","price":310.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/KD-187.jpg?v=1770217928"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/collections\/M14-d-JB-230.jpg?v=1742291842","url":"https:\/\/somersetandwood.com\/collections\/oil.oembed","provider":"Somerset \u0026 Wood Fine Art","version":"1.0","type":"link"}