Anon. Miniature Continental River Landscape

Sir William Vernon Guise Collection

This delightful picture forms part of a collection of works that we have for sale associated with Sir William Vernon Guise, 4th Baronet (1816–1887). Two of the works in the collection are signed by Guise himself and others are also likely by his hand. William Vernon Guise was the eldest son of General Sir John Wright Guise, 3rd Baronet, one of the most distinguished Peninsula officers, and Charlotte Diana, daughter of John Vernon of Clontarf Castle, Dublin. He succeeded as the 4th Baronet Guise, of Elmore Court, Gloucester on 1 April 1865. He served as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1872 and gained the rank of Colonel-Commandant in the Royal South Gloucestershire Militia.

Guise had a wide knowledge of geology, botany, archaeology and conchology. He was elected Fellow of the Geological Society in 1841 and was for many years one of the most active members of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club, serving as president of the club for twenty-eight years. He was also appointed Fellow of the Linnean Society.

The collection of works from which this picture derives, includes fine examples of typical Victorian friendship pictures, many of which are landscape subjects drawn in great detail in graphite, such as picturesque compositions and Continental Grand Tour views. A number of the works are miniature in scale and have decorative paper borders, which were popular pictorial elements, bringing a memento-like, collectable quality to pictures such as these.