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Thomas Miles Richardson Junior, Returning Home – 1851 watercolour painting
An original 1851 watercolour painting, Thomas Miles Richardson Junior, Returning Home.
A beautiful, poetically titled subject in watercolour by Thomas Miles Richardson Junior (1813–1890). The view is no doubt, like other drover subjects by Richardson, in the Scottish Highlands, a landscape favoured by the artist for its rugged splendor. Richardson is known to have painted 'Drovers above Loch Tay', depicting Scotland's traditional cattle drovers en route to the famous tryst at Crieff—where drovers from the north, and their 30,000 cows, would converge on the Perthshire town. Another work by the artist, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (FA.539), shows figures and animals crossing an Aberdeenshire bridge. The emotive trope of 'returning home' is one that had been used since the 18th century watercolourists, who included a peasant returning from market, or a labourer trudging home after work, to imbue a landscape with atmosphere.
During his lifetime, Richardson's colourful watercolours of Northern England and the Scottish Highlands, as well as his scenic panoramas of Italy and Switzerland, enjoyed great popularity and fetched high prices. In 1857, John Ruskin noted of one Highland view, a Scene in Glen Nevis exhibited at the Old Water-Colour Society, ‘Mr. Richard [sic] is gradually gaining in manual power, and opposes cobalt and burnt sienna very pleasantly.' The present watercolour achieves an intensity of tone—with masterful juxtaposition blue and red-brown, of cobalt and burnt siena— whilst at the same time capturing the sense of fleeting weather and movement.
A framing label indicates that this painting was one of a pair, the other being 'The Gerry [sic] River, Perthshire'. An additional label of framemakers Frost & Reed Studios Ltd bears the provenance of Col. G.R. Pilkington JP.
Presented in an ornate swept gilt frame and washline mount. Image size: 17.5 x 25.5cm. Frame size: 40.2 x 48.6cm.
All artworks come with a Certificate of Authenticity and—if it is a collection artwork—its accompanying collection text or artist biography.
Details
Signed: Signed lower left.
Inscribed: Frame labels verso.
Dated: Dated lower left.
Condition: The watercolour is in excellent condition. Very slight age toning to the mount. The odd small loss to the frame moulding, which is not especially noticeable due to its overall decorative detail. Please see photos for detail.
Presented: Framed.
Thomas Miles Richardson Junior (1813–1890) received his early artistic training in Newcastle from his father, Thomas Miles Richardson Senior (1784-1848). He first exhibited his work in Newcastle at the age of fourteen. By the 1830s Richardson's reputation was flourishing and he began to submit works to the Royal Academy, British Institution, Society of British Artists and Old Water-Colour Society. In Newcastle he ran a private art academy with his brother George, but in 1846, three years after being elected an Associate of the Old Water-Colour Society, he decided to settle in London. He went on to become a full member in 1851. Richardson travelled extensively throughout Scotland and the North of England, and also widely in Europe. In 1838 he published a large folio of twenty-six plates entitled Sketches on the Continent, a series of views in France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Holland, etc. from sketches made during a tour in 1837. His exhibited works, often on a panoramic scale, were largely landscapes in the Borders and the Scottish Highlands, Italian views and, in later years, Alpine scenes in Switzerland, France and Italy. Richardson Junior's work can be found in numerous public collections, including the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle and the Tate and Victoria & Albert Museum, London.