Henry Wallis RWS (London 1830 - 1916), Portrait of a young woman in Northern Italian dress, possibly Mary Ellen, signed and dated '1866' (centre left), pastel on paper, damage to the upper edge. 73 x 55 cm.
Henry Wallis RWS (London 1830 - 1916), Portrait of a young woman in Northern Italian dress, possibly Mary Ellen, signed and dated '1866' (centre left), pastel on paper, damage to the upper edge. 73 x 55 cm.
Property from a Private Collection Henry Wallis, R. W. S. British 1830 - 1916 Shakespeare and Spenser signed and dated H. Wallis. / 1864 lower right; titled, signed and inscribed with the artist's address Shakespeare and Spenser / Henry Wallis / 4 Grove End Rd. / St. Johns Wood. on the stretcher and signed and inscribed with the artist's studio address H Wallis Esq / The Mews / Campden Hill on a label attached to the stretcher oil on canvas Unframed: 51 by 66.5cm., 20 by 26in. Framed: 64 by 80cm., 25 by 31½in. Bid on Sotheby's
Henry Wallis (1830-1916) British, 'Study of an old lady', pencil heightened with white, 5" x 3.75", Provenance: Harold Wallis, Mary Wallis, Vera Langley.
HENRY WALLIS R.W.S. (BRITISH 1830-1916) THE MUSIC LESSON Watercolour (22.2cm x 34.3cm (8.75in x 13.5in)) Provenance: Sotheby’s, Belgravia, 10 April 1973 (to Upper Chenil Gallery); April 1979. Footnote: Exhibited: Cockermouth, Norham House Gallery, The Pre-Raphaelite Fringe Exhibition, November 1973, no. 21 (as ‘The Music Master’, lent by B Waters), not illustrated.
Henry Wallis (1830-1916) British, 'Study of an old lady', pencil heightened with white, 5" x 3.75", provenance: Harold Wallis, Mary Wallis, Vera Langley.
HENRY WALLIS, R.W.S. (1830-1916) Etna, from the theatre at Taormino pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour and with scratching out on paper wrapped around a wooden board 18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 61 cm.)
Henry Wallis (1830-1916) British, 'Study of an old lady', pencil heightened with white, 5" x 3.75", provenance: Harold Wallis, Mary Wallis, Vera Langley.
Henry Wallis (British, 1830-1916) Sir Walter Raleigh at Durham House 'Sir Walter's study at Durham House was a small chamber facing the river, and with a marvellously pleasant prospect from the window.' oil on canvas 36 x 29cm (14 3/16 x 11 7/16in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Henry Wallis (British, 1830-1916) His Highness and His Excellency the Ambassador of the Florentine Republic signed and inscribed 'No 1./Henry Wallis./9 Red Lion Square/W.C.' (on an old label attached to the stretcher)oil on canvas66 x 92cm (26 x 36 1/4in). Provenance: Sold at the exhibition in Dublin in 1873. T. O'Mahony Collection, Castlecorner, Kilkenny, Ireland, by 1973.Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 8 November 1996, lot 62.Private collection, UK (acquired from the above sale). Exhibited: London, Dudley Gallery, Cabinet Pictures in Oil, 1870, no. 93, asking price £200.London, The International Exhibition, 1871, no. 473.Dublin, Industrial Exhibition Palace, Loan Museum of Art Treasures, 1873, no. 12, asking price £200. Literature: The Illustrated London News, 5 November 1870, p. 478.Art, Pictorial and Industrial, An Illustrated Magazine, vol. I, p. 124.The Art Journal, vol. IX, 1870, p. 372.The Athenaeum, no. 2245, 5 November 1870, p. 598.The Illustrated London News, 7 January 1871, p. 16.Ronald Lessens, The British Art Journal, 'Henry Wallis (1830-1916), a neglected Pre-Raphaelite', vol. XV, no. 1, p. 54.During 1502 and 1503 Niccolò Machiavelli, head of the second chancery of Florence and acting as emissary and spy, accompanied Cesare Borgia around Romagna. This region, recently conquered by Borgia, extended startingly close to the city-state of Florence; the Florentine government were unsure of Borgia's intentions towards them, but they were aware of his ambition and ruthlessness. They sent Machiavelli to discover his objectives while working as a diplomat, Borgia knew of the duplicity of this assignment and Machiavelli knew Borgia knew. This resulted in a battle of intellect as Machiavelli sent letters back to Florence while trying to avoid Borgia's censors. Also in Romagna around 1502, not pictured here, was Leonardo da Vinci who had been commissioned by Borgia to survey the area and reportedly interacted with Machiavelli at this time.This is the first of a series of Italian Renaissance inspired paintings that would preoccupy Wallis's work in the 1870s. The painting received mixed reviews at the Dudley Gallery exhibition. The critic for Art, Pictorial and Industrial said 'His Highness and His Excellence the Ambassador of the Florentine Republic (93) by H. Wallis, is not, perhaps, altogether original in conception, but it is painted with great knowledge, and is excellent in tone. The bits of glowing sky seen through the trees which overhang the garden wall by which the great Florentine and the Prince are seated, help the picture greatly'. The critic for The Art Journal said, 'Mr. H. Wallis, we fear, has laid himself open to the charge of plagiarism in an otherwise commendable picture – His Highness and His Excellence the Ambassador of the Florentine Republic (93). Certainly these figures on a bench are singularly like to Cabanel's well-known composition The Florentine Poet. Mr. Wallis, however, whether or not he has stolen an idea, succeeds in making an agreeable picture: once more he pushes colour to a romantic pitch; his work, if not strong, is subtle and sensitive to beauty'. The critic of The Illustrated London News indicated, 'The praise of dramatic insight is due to Mr. H. Wallis's picture His Highness and his Excellence the Ambassador of the Florentine Republic (93), representing Duke Caesar Borgia and Machiavelli conversing on a garden-seat. The painter shows two well-contrasted types of representative Italian public men of the fifteenth and early in the sixteenth century. His Highness lolls, careless and laughing on his seat. Red-haired, of sanguine temperament, and dressed in a crimson suit, he is the man of action, combining the craft of the fox with the bloodthirstiness of the tiger. The other is the man of thought and deceitful diplomacy. He is of atralbilarious temperament, cold and astute; sitting erect and self-contained, he essays to purchase security for a Republic enervated by wealth and factious division, and is quite capable of duplicity. The colouring is very refined, but a rather clouded vagueness of general effect arises from a want of more definite light and shade'.Not surprisingly the most extensive review was by Wallis's friend F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum, 'Mr. Wallis has struck out into more than one fresh pathway, always with more or less success...the picture before us, shows the wealth of his mind, and the facility with which he turns its powers to account in divergent courses...We are heartily thankful for His Highness and His Excellence the Ambassador of the Florentine Republic (93) – C. Borgia and Machiavelli, resting on a marble bench by a garden wall in Rome, conversing, and not only dressed each suitably to his nature, but posed and looking each after the mode of his kind. One sits nervously, almost on the edge of the bench, and listens to all appearance acquiescently, if not deferentially, to the other, who, clad in flame-colour from head to foot, lolls back, poses his foot on the marble, and demonstratively urges some apparently favoured scheme, looking, with his flushed and jovial face, his eager eyes and action, his restless limbs and mobile fingers, the very type of impulse and geniality, which by no means disclaimed the character of craft, yet seemed more open for being more profound. A big, robust, and luxurious, if not coarse, man, is this Caesar; whereas his companion is the type of Italian refinement and intellectual power. Dark while the other is red, slight of form, with strength of character marked on his brow and nose, astute, reticent, patient, Machiavelli is soberly, yet richly, clad in blue and grey. The design is admirable; the composition seems to us in need of enrichment by added elements, for the two figures are the sum of the picture, and each is alone, whereas we would not bring them closer together – this would mar the conception of the subject, than which it would be hard to invent a fairer – yet it may be that nothing of the expressiveness of the work would be lost if the figures were not isolated'.This work will be included in the Henry Wallis catalogue raisonné, Henry Wallis From Pre-Raphaelite Painter to Collector/Connoisseur, currently in preparation by Dennis T. Lanigan & Ronald Lessens. We are grateful to Dennis T. Lanigan for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
HENRY WALLIS, R.W.S. (1830-1916) POMPEII watercolour and crayon 51 cm by 35.5 cm; 20 in by 14 in PROVENANCE Wallis’ studio and then by descent from the artist to his daughter-in-law Alice Julyan Wallis (née Roberts), and thence to her great-niece Mrs. Vera G. Whiting, Purley, Surrey; her sale Sotheby’s Belgravia, 10 April 1973, lot 215, bought N. Drummond for £42 Wallis was frequently in nearby Naples, from as early as 1857, and is known to have visited the Italian city at least eight times between 1889 and 1908. Because of his interest in archeological sites Wallis undoubtedly visited Pompeii many times. We are grateful to Dennis T.Lanigan for his assistance in cataloguing this work. It will be included in the forthcoming catalogue on the work of Henry Wallis due to be published by the Antique Collector's Club in 2018.
Amarna Period, 1353-1336 BC. A carnelian amuletic pendant of Tawaret in profile modelled in the half-round, pierced lug above the head. 2.05 grams, 24mm (1"). Ex Michael Nellist collection, Cornwall, UK; acquired from Helios Gallery, Bath, UK; previously in the Henry Wallis RWS collection, formed 1830-1916. The amulet was previously in the Henry Wallis RWS collection. Wallis was an artist of the Pre-Raphaelite movement who enjoyed the fri3ndship of several great painters such as Rosseti, Alam-Tadema and Burne-Jones. Wallis was a collector of antiquities and a scholar who published books on Egyptian, Classical, Medieval and Islamic art. His collection forms part of the permanent displays of several important museums including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Wallis travelled widely and met W.M. Flinders Petrie in Egypt, where he acquired antiquities from such sites as Tel el-Amarna and Tuna el-Gebel. The Mike Nellist Collection. His interest in antiquity was piqued when, during the 1970s, he spent some time working in Israel and had the opportunity to visit Roman-period locations including Lake Galilee and Masada, the site of the famous Judaean revolt and subsequent massacre. He made his first purchases at that time and was soon building an enviable collection of artefacts. While at university, he was able to study human remains at first hand in conjunction with archaeological research and from there his passion for the human aspects of historical research was kindled. Now retired, Mike indulges one of his other passions wildlife and nature photography.
Watercolour 'A Street In The Native Quarter Cairo' by Henry Wallis, busy street scene with native on camel, mosque to distance with tall buildings to each side, mounted, f/g, old label to reverse with title & address 9 Beauchamp Road Upper Norwood SE, approx. 10.5 x 15""
* Wallis (Henry, 1830-1916). A series of twenty-four autograph letters signed 'Henry Wallis' to his son Felix, c. 1885-1906, writing from Cairo, Rome, Turin, Alexandria, Exeter, etc., with talk of his travels, plus general domestic matters such as plumbing problems, payments, correspondence, organizing of books and proofs, also occ. details of artefacts found or bought including antiquities, textiles, glass and curios, with mentions of sending these home and references to contacting the British Museum, a couple of letters in pencil, a total of approx. 73pp., mostly 8vo, together with two autograph letters to his mother, n.d., 7pp., two letters to Violet, one dated 26th December 1913, 3pp., Henry Wallis's passport with numerous stamps and two pencil sketches at rear, a signed note, a receipt (1868), a signed inventory, 1912, a lock of "father's hair" (in an envelope postmarked 1866), plus a small group of related letters and papers belonging to Felix and family including correspondence from Laurence Binyon at the British Museum. Henry Wallis was a notable painter and ceramics expert. 'By early 1855 Wallis was acquainted with the novelist and poet George Meredith. This led to Meredith's posing for the face of the dead poet Thomas Chatterton in Wallis's painting Chatterton (Tate collection), which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856. This picture made Wallis famous overnight: John Ruskin, for example, described it as 'faultless and wonderful' (Parris, 144). Its continuing fascination for the public owes much to the way in which it is inextricably linked with a real-life 'romance': in the summer of 1857, if not before, Wallis and Meredith's wife, Mary Ellen, daughter of Thomas Love Peacock, became lovers. Mary Meredith left her husband, and had a son with Wallis, Harold (Felix) Meredith (later Wallis) in April 1858. Mary Ellen died in October 1861.' (DNB). In 1859 he came into a comfortable inheritance and, though he remained a Royal Academy exhibitor until 1877, he never again made the same artistic impact. His energies were then largely spent travelling abroad and writing on archaeology, ceramics, and Renaissance, much of which was published in the Art Journal between 1882 and 1890. He also published twenty volumes on Persian, Egyptian, Greek, and Byzantine ceramics often using his own illustrations. He died, unmarried, at his home in Croydon and was buried in Highgate cemetery. (a folder) PLEASE NOTE: Buyer's Premium for this lot is 21%
A study of a late 16th century Iznik dish watercolour 27.3 x 27.3 cm. (10 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.) and a study of an Iznik drinking vessel by the same hand, (2).
Timon and Flavius signed with initials 'H.W.' (lower right) oil on panel 23 7/8 x 19 3/8 in. (60.6 x 49.2 cm.) PROVENANCE The publishers of the Art Journal, 1876. with Julian Hartnoll, London, 1971, from whom purchased by Joe Setton, on behalf of The Pre-Raphaelite Trust. Anon. sale; Parke Bernet, New York, 11 February 1981. Anon. sale; Christie's South Kensington, 20 March 1984, lot 78, as Alms for the Poor, when acquired by the present owner. ENGRAVED By C. Cousen for the Art Journal, 1876. LITERATURE Art Journal, 1876, pp. 172-3, illus. EXHIBITION The Pre-Raphaelites and their Times, 1985, no. 19. NOTES This picture illustrates Shakespeare's Timon of Athens (Act IV, Scene 3) and was painted about 1878, when it was engraved for the Art Journal. It therefore dates from many years after Wallis had painted such Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces as The Death of Chatterton (1855-6; Tate Gallery) and The Stonebreaker (1857-8; Birmingham), and shows him reverting to a more conventional style. However, his choice of theme looks back to his Pre-Raphaelite origins. The Pre-Raphaelites had often mined Shakespeare in their search for meaningful subjects, and were invariably attracted, as Wallis is here, to ones rich in moral significance. Timon, Lord of Athens, was profligate of his bounty, giving lavishly to all, even flatterers and sycophants, despite the protestations of his steward, Flavius. The time came when his wealth was at an end, and he turned confidently to his friends for help; but he soon found that those who had courted him when he had riches to bestow shunned him in adversity. Bitterly disillusioned, he took to the woods, abjuring the cursed city and declaring himself a hater of mankind. There he was sought out by the faithful Flavius, who begged to be allowed to serve him and offered him money from his hard-earned savings, as seen in the picture. Timon at first took this for a bribe, but he was at last convinced of the steward's fidelity and admitted that the world contained at least one honest man. Nonetheless the human form and voice of his servant filled him with disgust, and Flavius was forced to depart.
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