Watercolours

This enamel copy of Hans Holbein’s Whitehall mural portrait is by William Bone Senior (1792-1846) – second-generation member of the Bone dynasty of miniaturists and enamellists.

Leeds-born artist Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) was a self-taught artist who worked during the ‘golden age’ of British watercolour painting. And while, perhaps, his prowess did not always rival that of his leading contemporaries, James Mitchell reflects that at his best, the Yorkshireman’s work is “very pleasing”.

British and Irish watercolours piqued the interest of bidders at Tennants’ (18.5% buyer’s premium) Country House sale in Leyburn on October 14.

A near-monochrome watercolour by the Australian artist and stage designer Loudon Sainthill (1918-69) sold for five times its top estimate at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on October 3-4.

As part of a fifth anniversary auction at Farleigh Court Golf Club on November 1, Catherine Southon is offering the first part of an archive consigned by the family of the commercial artist and cartoonist Francis Wilford-Smith (1927-2009).

A pair of watercolours depicting Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northern-most town in England, turned up at Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) on September 2.

Mural painter, stained glass artist and landscapist, Henry Arthur Payne (1868-1940) had many talents.

Arriving in Madras in the second week of November 1792, William Daniell (1769-1837) and his uncle Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) – creators of a successful series of aquatints depicting the subcontinent – sought out fellow artist Robert Home (1752-1834).

Mabel Lucy Atwell (1879-1964) began her formal artistic training at St Martin’s School of Art in London, but abandoned her courses to pursue a career that saw her produce those sentimentalised depictions of chubby, mostly cheery, rosy cheeked children.

Richard Allen is a name few in the portrait miniatures market would fail to know.

Fine examples of John Sell Cotman’s (1782-1842) draftsmanship appeared at separate auctions in the south of England.

Found among the contents of a storage unit, a watercolour of Venice by Edward Lear (1812-88) starred in Brighton General Auctions’ (15% buyer’s premium) sale on July 28.

A scarce collection of watercolours by Biggles creator WE Johns (1893-1968) sold beyond expectations in Sworders’ (22% buyer’s premium) June 27 sale in Stansted Mountfitchet.

Karen Taylor Fine Art’s exhibition of British drawings, watercolours and oils takes place from 30 June-July 7 at Illustrationcupboard Gallery in St James’s.

Forget Michael Jackson and Madonna: this summer Timothy Millett and Claudia Hill are the king and queen of pop. Taking into account, that is, the title of their upcoming exhibition, 'POP: Portraits and Objects from the Past'.

Watercolours by the polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) were discovered among thousands of works from Stanley Studios in Chelsea.

Before the poet Edward Lear sent the owl and the pussycat out to sea in a beautiful pea green boat in his 1867 poem, he combined them in this c.1846 watercolour.