Another Visit to the Salerooms
William Osborne is one of the best known of the Irish animal and portrait painters, being particularly noted for his dogs and hunting groups. He trained at the Royal Hibernian Academy, later becoming a member in 1868. Of his works exhibited, most were at this academy.
Osborne’s oil of an Irish Water Spaniel, Terrier and plover is one of the most important examples of the Irish Water Spaniel in art by an Irish artist and was sold recently by Whytes in Dublin for an above-estimate €4,200. It is illustrated in my book on the Irish Water Spaniel, “A Bundle of Rags in a Cyclone.”
Parker Fine Art Auctions always manages to have a small selection of affordable dog pictures in their regular sales, and the 19th-Century English School studies of dogs set in nine panels was one. Whoever the artist was was obviously very accomplished and has faithfully copied the works of other artists, including Edwin Landseer’s “Dignity and Impudence” — Bloodhound and Terrier — which he painted in 1839, and Carl Frederik Kiorboe’s “The Flood” — a Landseer Newfoundland and her puppies being swept down the flooded river. (All was not lost, though, for there is a follow-up picture in which they are all saved.) The panel sold above estimate for £370.
Another picture in Parker’s recent sale was an oil of a Skye Terrier by Zélia Maria Klerx. Klerx was from the Belgium region of Ardennes, and her work was predominantly from the late 19th Century. She had an aristocratic following, being commissioned by owners of castle and distinguished houses in the area. Although not known for her dogs, she did produce a number of well-observed naturalistic portraits of dogs of different breeds, among them the Rough Collie, Griffon Bruxellois and Great Dane. Surprisingly, as Skye Terrier art rarely appears at auction, it failed to reach its reserve.
Reuben Ward Binks was one of the most prolific and sought after of all dog artists working in the first half of the 20th Century. His list of patrons read like a Who’s Who of the good and the great of his day.
He was commissioned by three generations of the British royal family and was invited by King George V to shoots at Sandringham, where he sketched the gundogs at work. He spent many months in the Punjab painting the portraits of 150 dogs owned by the Maharaja of Patiala and paid several visits to America to fulfill commissions from Mrs. Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge.
For me, though, the most beautiful and sympathetically rendered of all Binks paintings is the head study of the Deerhound Glenlogie of Springfort that Bonhams in Edinburgh sold in one of their Sporting and Wildlife sales for £701 with commission. Glenlogie was born in 1922 and owned by Mrs. K. Stanley Hobart. His breeding went back to the Selwood hounds of Robert Hood-Wright and the St. Ronan’s hounds of Harry Rawson, including St. Ronan’s Ranger, one of the most successful sires of the time.
A talented artist, Boz — Barbara Hands — is well known in the show world for her Crinan West Highland White Terriers and through her booth at Crufts, Windsor and other shows. Her paintings and prints of Westies are collected by a strong following of fans worldwide, and her booth was a mecca for those interested in anything Westie.
A member of the Fine Art Trade Guild, she studied art at college, and with her natural talent for painting, her use of light and colors, her work was by no means confined to Westies. It included the big-winning Wire Fox Terrier from the 1970s, Ch. Cripsey Townville T’other’un, and an enamel brooch of the Royal Welsh Corgi, Kelpie, a Christmas gift for the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Other commissions included the show-winning Norwegian Elkhound UK/Irish Ch. Boltown Boss of Opinan for the late Dr. Arthur Sneeden, one time convenor of the Scottish Kennel Club. Boss was from three-quarters imported Norwegian blood and proved his worth as a sire. His picture sold for £390.
The Toy Spaniel Dash was given to Princess Victoria when she was 13 by her mother the Duchess of Kent. When Victoria became Queen, Dash was described as “the Queen’s closest companion” and was the first of a long line of dogs the Queen owned.
Sir Edwin Landseer’s painting of Dash was commissioned by the Duchess of Kent as a present for her daughter in 1836. The painting became much copied, as did a lot of Landseer’s work, and heralded the beginning of paintings of Toy Spaniels becoming one of the most popular canine subjects in art in the 19th Century.
Many are unsigned and from the hands of provincial artists whose naïve work has a strong following. Occasionally one from a more skilled hand appears at auction, like the one here of a Blenheim wearing a brass collar, which sold for £1,100.
Those who have walked up Piccadilly either to or from the Royal Kennel Club will probably have noticed on a street corner opposite the Ritz Hotel the large bronze sculpture of a horse and rider. Its creator was Dame Elizabeth Frink, one of the most important English sculptors of the second half of the 20th Century, whose work can be seen in many public places.
The bronze sitting dog titled “Dog” (childhood sculpture) was sold by Dreweatts for £55,000, just short of its lower estimate. It was part of a charity edition from 1993 commissioned by the Morris Singer Foundry, established in 1848 and recognized as the oldest fine-art foundry in the U.K. The commission was sold in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
The intended edition of 350 never reached fruition after the Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, which represented Frink for the last 10 years of her life, took over the management of pre-existing Morris Singer casts. The final edition of 50 was still a relatively large edition for Frink’s bronzes, some of which are in editions of single figures.