Edward Irvine Halliday

Bought a dark and dingy painting, with several holes, it was cheap but something about it I liked. I believe it is a painting of Shylock there's the poison bottle, key, knife and what looks like a pound of flesh spilling from the goblet - that or I have a vivid imagination!

Seems I'm lucky when buying unloved paintings ...

This is the reverse. Someone had hastily tacked the canvas to its stretcher. 



And beneath this painting was another - a bog off - 'buy one get one free' ...

 Not in great condition but a pleasant painting.

So now with the 1st painting removed the back of the canvas is revealed.

Almost certain these are paintings by Edward Irvine Halliday - not many other Hallidays fit the time period. Anyway I finished cleaning, repairing and framing the interior scene and there, faint but clear is:


So these two paintings are definitely by Edward Irvine Halliday, but more than that, he gives his address as 65 Boulevard Arago Paris, the artists' commune.

Pierre Roy 1880–1950 resided at the house at the same time as Halliday and in Roy's painting (Boris Anrep in his Studio, 65 Boulevard Arago) of still life with statue, it shows similarities with the still life I bought.

The finished painting framed from an old oak frame I've had for ages but suits perfectly.

Similar elements are shown in this later work. A coral dress, palette, and angles....

Notes on 65, Boulevard Arago, Paris.

In 1923 Ford Madox moved with the Australian painter Stella Bowen into a cottage in the Parisian artists' colony known as the Cité Fleurie at 65, Boulevard Arago. Hemingway played tennis at the tennis courts at number 69. The guillotine's thud, based at the Santé prison, added a certain frisson to Hemmingway's famous parties. 

Ford Madox  founded the transatlantic review, and published James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and the young Ernest Hemingway, whom Ford took on as a sub-editor from this address.Ford Madox Ford (born Ford Hermann Hueffer December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature.

Ford is now remembered for his novels The Good Soldier (1915), the Parade's End tetralogy (1924–28) and The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906–08). The Good Soldier is frequently included among the great literature of the 20th century, including the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, The Observer′s '100 Greatest Novels of All Time., and The Guardian′s "1000 novels everyone must read".

He was named after his maternal grandfather, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Ford Madox Brown, whose biography he would eventually write.

Guardian archive, 11 May 1934:

PARIS, MAY 10.

Today, the anniversary of the Nazis' ceremonial burning of books outside the Opera House in Berlin, the 'German Library of Burnt Books' was opened at 65, Boulevard Arago, Paris. The library was crowded this afternoon by an audience which included many of the best-known German scholars now in exile.

The neighbourhood is classified as a historical monument and houses 29 art studios built between 1878 and 1881 constructed from materials from the former 'Pavillon de l'Alimentation' at the Universal Exposition of 1878. This is the oldest artists' neighbourhood of Paris.

Gauguin and Modigliani were among its residents at the beginning of the XIXth century.

Late 18th century mirror

A distressed pier mirror circa 1780. All the joints were loose and gold leaf rubbed to painted layer. The ‘painting' and the mirror were otherwise in goodish order. After making good the mirror’s frame it was time to restore the gold leaf – a new experience for me, fortunately the mirror was on the small side, just 30 cm wide.

 Quite pleased with the result and an old tatty mirror was saved ... until the glass protecting the ‘painting’ was broken. And it wasn't a painting. It was a reverse painted print.

So, how to replace this essential piece of this mirror. I had old panes of antique glass so one was cut to fit the space. Then I searched on Ebay for an antique print dated to the last half of the 18th century and found Hyde Hall.

About: Reverse glass printing is a process whereby a print is transferred to a sheet of glass, varnished and coloured to resemble an oil painting: The print is first wetted out A piece of broad sheet glass is coated with varnish The dampened print is then laid face down onto the glass and allowed to dry.

 The main bulk of the paper substrate is then removed from the verso of the print by rolling with the fingers, leaving a thin layer of paper and the inked image on the glass The verso is then varnished using resins of natural origin, such as Venetian turpentine, to give the print a brilliant transparent effect. Finally, the verso of the glass print is coloured with paint media, most commonly oil. 

 Reverse glass print manufacture came into fashion in England at the beginning of the 18th century. Mezzotints have a rich tonality, giving a dynamic, ‘painterly’ appearance to the printed artwork. However, during the 17th century, the monochrome mezzotints were becoming monotonous, resulting in an increasing call for colour. This increasing demand for coloured artwork led to the novel production, by professional printmakers and amateurs alike, of the reverse glass print. 

This ‘progression’ soon went out of fashion when colour printing was introduced in the mid-19th century. Further reading on reverse print painting can be found here.

17th century Dutch tavern scene.

An extremely filthy, torn, scuffed oil on canvas from the mid-17th century. Tavern scene featuring peasants carousing..

A little dog appeared behind the chair-well parts of him. Gradually worked out how his legs were positioned ... and there he is back in place, warming his backside by the fire.

Trying to determine the artist, or who this painting is after, and I thought at first Teniers, but after rummaging, my guess is Ostade - there are similar motifs in some engravings, such as the character losing his hat as he extends his arms, and the arch with latticed window.

James Isaiah Lewis

Richmond Bridge, Surrey, from Cholmondeley Walk. James Isaiah Lewis (1861–1934). Cleaned, framed, tears and holes repaired.

Regency gent

I don't often see regency gents as Elvis impersonators but here he is, complete with frothing chest hair and a mullet. There's always a risk in removing earlier over-painting but this gamble paid off and revealed under the hirsuteness is a rather nice frilly shirt and neck scarf.