The Forgotten Art UK

One of the artworks that I like most among all those found in Portobello Road market is a small original chromolithography that reproduces a painting by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) which is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (50.145.17). According to that picture, the title of this lithograph would be ‘Cottage Children’ or ‘The Wood Gatherers’. Printed on paper laid on brass and with a hand-inked background, this chromolithography was probably published in London circa 1880s. "Chrome", as it was also called at the time, or colour printing from a stone, reached the market in the 1870s, and its heyday was in the 1880s and 1890s. The original painting is about a century older than this lithography. Its dimensions are very reduced, like in a miniature, 30 x 36 inches (76 x 92 mm). It was purchased on November 29, 2019.   In a chromolithography like this one, the artist had to draw a separate plate for each colour, producing the final image by using more t...

That same day, 16th November, next to the watercolour by H. B. Willis, I found an antique oil painting on paper, also dating back to the 19th century or maybe earlier, as the way of depicting the trees in this painting is typical of the 18th or early 19th century. Once again it was a landscape, probably Scottish, though untitled this time. It is signed by an artist named J Hakhip? of whom I could not find any records. The medium used was oil on paper, measuring 259 x 201 mm. A fine 19th-century English painting. 'Go to nature' was the advice that 19th century influential art critic John Ruskin gave to young painters, outdoor painting or 'au plein air' as an essential component of their training as artists. The fact that the support for this painting is a sheet of paper further reinforces the idea that it was executed in nature rather than in a studio. Since the late 18th century drawing increasingly formed part of the education of both gentlemen and ladies. Many waterco...