Cheffins
Lot 486
Richard Simkin (British, 1840-1926) Admiral Lord Nelson on HMS Victory signed lower right “R Simkin” watercolour 25 x 18cm (9.75 x 7.02in) William Fraser Garden (British, 1856-1921) Exhibited under the name of William Fraser Garden, Garden William Fraser was born in 1856. He was the fourth, and most celebrated, of seven artistic Scottish brothers. The brothers were educated at Bedford School, where they were taught by Bedford schoolmaster, Bradford Rudge (1805-1885), who was a distinguished landscape artist in both oils and watercolours. Rudge exhibited at the Royal Academy, taught at the school and also took private pupils until his death, and both Garden and his brother, George Gordon Fraser, were his star pupils. William Fraser Garden loved the River Ouse in all its moods, particularly the stretch between Bedford and St Ives. His paintings have an almost photographic quality in both the fineness of his work and the tranquillity that he achieves in his landscapes. He painted Britain’s oldest inn, The Ferry Boat at Holywell, several times along with other buildings on the course of the Ouse. His brother Arthur Anderson Fraser founded the White Cockade Jacobite Club there. Garden exhibited at the Royal Academy several times but did not achieve the success in his lifetime that he so longed for, and richly deserved. His home was The House in the Fields, in the beautiful village of Hemingford Abbots, Cambridgeshire, until his sad death in poverty in 1921. We are delighted to have such a wonderful selection of his work in this sale, collected by the Broderick family over many years at their home in Lytham St Anne’s, Lancashire. There are also examples of watercolours by two of his brothers in the sale, Arthur Anderson Fraser and George Gordon Fraser.
