E. Donald Lobster & Mussels Still Life
An original 1886 watercolour painting, E. Donald, Lobster & Mussels Still Life.
An outstanding still life in watercolour. The painting is particularly delicate yet assured. The palette is beautifully harmonious, with the salmon pinks and blue-greys of the lobster and mussels echoed in the decorated bowl—suggesting the influence of a Japanese aesthetic.
Lobsters were a popular still life subject having been depicted by Dutch painters of the 17th century to denote wealth and opulence. The food was still a luxury in the Victorian period, but here the seafood still life is revisioned in a modest and rustic composition, in a way that seems to honour the food's natural origins.
E. Donald is possibly the British/New Zealand artist Elizabeth Donald (1858–1940), by whom there is a painting in Auckland Art Gallery and by whom a painting sold at Christies in 2005.
Dimensions: Height: 24cm (9.45") Width: 46.5cm (18.31")
Presented: Unframed.
Medium: Watercolour
Age: Late 19th-century
Signed: Signed lower right.
Inscribed: --
Dated: Dated lower right.
Condition: Some age toning to the periphery of the sheet in the area of an old mount. The are areas of abrasion to the paint surface (principally in the area of the white cloth, with additional small patches to the bowl and at the upper left), which do not significantly detract from the image. Please see photos for detail.
Stock number: JU-386
