Rowley's Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers
Los 897
JOSEPH STANNARD (1797-1830) BritishThe Marl Staithe, Whitlingham, Near NorwichOil on canvas, old label to verso for Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, old label for Royal Academy Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters 1891 inscribed with artist, title and owner, further printed label for Burlington House Exhibition 1891, further inscribed labels, chalk and pencil inscriptions, and stencilled stock number, framed. 39 x 29 cm. Provenance: THE SIR WILLIAM AGNEW PICTURES FROM ROUGHAM HALL (Lots 887-905 inclusive)Sir William Agnew, 1st Baronet (1825-1910) English, was one of the most successful art dealers of the 19th century, with Thomas Agnew & Sons, his London art business in Mayfair, flourishing as one of the leading art dealerships in London from 1860 until it closed in April 2013. Originally his early clients were the new hugely wealthy class of industrialists, merchants and bankers making it big in industrial Britain.Sir William knew many of the contemporary artists of his time personally. In 1870 Sir William invited Frederick Walker (1840-1875) British, John Evan Hodgson (1831-1895) British, Charles Leslie (1839-1886) British and Stacy Marks (1829-1898) British, to his Salford House, Summer Hill. When asked if they could play billiards in the newly added billiard room on Sunday morning, Sir William replied that they did not do that on Sundays at Summer Hill. Having left the room in slightly haughty manner, Sir William returned an hour later and found that Walker had just finished a large mermaid on the lining paper of the walls (the Paris wallpaper had yet to arrive), Charles Leslie had painted a landscape of the Thames, Stacy Marks had sketched Walker and Agnew playing billiards, and Hodgson had started a highland landscape. After working until midnight and all the next day, the Paris wallpaper was cancelled and the drawings varnished.Sir William was also a well known figure at auction. There is a description of Sir William at the Christie's Wells sale in 1890 which reads "Christie's was crammed full on Saturday afternoon, though the sale could have been conducted quite as well in a four wheel cab for Mr Agnew bought nearly everything. Roughly speaking he spent nearly £50,000 out of £77,000 which the sale produced.... You cannot see Mr Agnew's jovial countenance, you cannot hear Mr Agnew's formidable voice, but that hat of his holds you like the eye of the ancient mariner. Every bob of the hat means a thousand. It is splendid." In 1889 Sir William bought Edward Burne Jones's four major panels illustrating the Legend of the Briar Rose and exhibited them in his Bond Street Gallery from 1890, attracting over 1,000 visitors per day.Sir William's business was now becoming more and more international with clients including Junius Spencer Morgan (183-1890) American, Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) American, as well as several members of the Rothschild family. Sir William's last great achievement was probably the collection he assembled for Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh from 1887 which included a Boucher, two Van Dycks, walls full of Gainsboroughs, Reynolds and Romneys, and a Vermeer and one of the greatest late Rembrandt self portraits ever painted. Few people knew of the Iveagh collection as business was conducted in great secrecy and all communications were in code. In total Lord Iveagh bought 240 pictures and drawings from Agnew's and when he left Kenwood to the nation in 1927 sixty-two of the sixty-three pictures included were purchased from Agnew's. The collection was described by the Guardian as the most valuable gift of paintings to the nation of the 20th century. Sir William retired from the Agnew's firm in 1895 when Lord Rosebery had him made a baronet for his services to art. When he died Sir William was described in newspaper obituaries as a Prince of Art Dealers. CONDITION REPORTS: Generally good condition with expected wear, re-lined, could do with a light clean, some surface crazing, losses to frame.
