Pictures from the family archives of artists are particularly fascinating because they often show a greater breadth of an artist’s talent rather than a collection put together by a collector or curator. This group of watercolours and drawings, which has been handed down through the descendants of George Howard - and is offered here for the first time in its history - is rich and varied in subjects, medium and date. There are portraits, landscapes and book illustrations all of which are united by a freshness of design and a lack of pretention. There are also pictures and a plaster sculpture by some of the artist’s eminent friends.

George Howard was the 9th and last Earl of Carlisle, born into wealth and high position as the inheritor of the estates of Naworth Castle in Cumbria and Castle Howard in Yorkshire. His background meant that he did not need to sell his pictures to make a living, but this is not to say that he treated his painting as an amateur pursuit or that his artist friends regarded him as anything other than an equal – although they did also enjoy his patronage. He was the only child of the politician Hon. Charles Wentworth Howard and Hon. Mary Pricilla Harriet Parke, daughter of Lord Wensleydale.

George was educated at Eton and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1861. After graduating he studied in London under William Cave Thomas at Leigh’s Art School and, from 1865, with Alphonse Legros and Giovanni Costa at the Royal College of Art. In 1864 he married the remarkable Rosalind Frances Howard, 8th daughter of the 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley. She was a radical political and social activist particularly remembered for her support of the Temperance Movement. She took over most of the running of their large country estates so that George could concentrate on his art. Rosalind was a striking woman painted by George’s friends Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Blake Richmond but nobody portrayed her more regularly than her husband – there are two superb portraits by George of Rosalind in this collection (Lots 234, and 238). Rosalind and George divided their time between their vast country estates and a beautiful Arts and Crafts house at 1 Palace Green in Kensington, designed by Philip Webb and decorated by William Morris. It was at Palace Green that the Howards entertained a wide circle of artists, writers and politicians and among their close friend was William Gladstone, Lewis Carroll, Alfred Tennyson, William Morris and Robert Browning but the closest friendship was with the Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones. The Passing of Venus or The Triumph of Love (Lot 242) appears to be an early design by Burne-Jones for a panel of fifteen tiles, depicting men and women offering their hearts to Venus who is riding past in a carriage pulled by doves commanded by her son Cupid. Burne-Jones produced an important frieze for the dining room of 1 Palace Green depicting the story of Cupid and Psyche but this was not commissioned until 1869 and the style of this cartoon is more consistent with earlier work by the artist/designer.

"No more exceptional or attractive young couple gathered about them in those days a more varied company of talents and distinctions whether in art, literature or politics."

Sidney Colvin, Memories and Notes of Persons and Places, London, 1921, pp.22-23

George Howard concentrated upon landscape painting and he became one of the group of artists known as The Etruscans, which included Lord Leighton, Giovanni Costa and Matthew Ridley Corbett. The oil Costebelle, near Hyeres (Lot 225) and watercolour Olive Terraces at Oneglia (Lot 221) are the gems of this group and display Howard’s ability to capture Mediterranean sunlight and repose – the first in France and the second in Italy. The Howards spent several months every year in Italy – sometimes staying for as long as seven months at a time – in this collection there is a wonderful views of Amalfi (Lot 222), a superb watercolour of the lagoon of Venice (Lot 228) and a wonderful view of St Peter’s, Rome (Lot 226). Further afield he painted Lake Pichola at Udaipur in India c.1890 (Lot 224) and closer to home he painted watercolours of various places in Britain, including at Naworth (Lot 237) and at Lanercost Priory (Lot 223) close to George’s Cumbrian estate.

The Howards had eleven children and in this collection are two portraits of their daughter Lady Cecilia Maude Howard (23 April 1868 - 6 May 1947), including one by George’s friend Matthew Ridley Corbett, another member of the Etruscan School of artists, and the other, an informal scene of her painting in the garden (Lots 236 and 240). There is also a delightful watercolour of the Roberts daughters in the garden at Atherstone House in Lincoln painted in 1905 (Lot 230); Christina Roberts, and her sister Winifred Roberts (1893–1981), who later became a celebrated artist and married the painter Ben Nicholson. An accomplished artist herself, who had obviously inherited her father’s talent, there is one watercolour by Cecilia included in this sale (Lot 222).

The most intimate and sensitive portrait sketches in the collection are studies of George and Rosalind’s daughter Elizabeth Dacre Howard who died on 17 July 1883, aged four months. These poignant drawings were made a day after her death by her grief-stricken father and by his friend William Blake Richmond – these may have been used by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm who sculpted a terracotta effigy of Elizabeth at Lanercost Priory in Brampton (Lots 232 and 233).

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Auction Details

Tuesday 11 February, 10.30am GMT
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

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VIEWING:

• Viewing in London (highlights): 16-17 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5LU
  • Wednesday 29 January: 10am-4pm
  • Thursday 30 January: 10am-4pm
  • Friday 31 January: 10am-4pm
• Viewing in Newbury (full sale): Donnington Priory, RG14 2JE
  • Thursday 6 February: 10am-4pm
  • Friday 7 February: 10am-4pm
  • Sunday 9 February: 10am-3pm
  • Monday 10 February: 10am-4pm