catalog text
JOHN HORACE HOOPER (BRITISH, 1852-1906) FINE ANTIQUE LANDSCAPE PAINTING
"Winchelsea", signed lower left
Item # 130112DTP15
This is a bright and nostalgic Victorian landscape by artist John Horace Hooper, depicting a young boy breaking from his afternoon of fishing in his tiny vessel to talk with a young girl on the bank. The setting is warm, captured during a summer afternoon beside a slow river while farmers work in the background. A tiny typed label on the stretcher notes this as being "Winchelsea", a small town in East Sussex, England, located two miles from Rye. The work remains in exceptional condition, as we have just had it professionally conserved while remaining on it's original lining and retaining it's original stretchers. It is signed lower left in the distinctive italic scrawl reading "J Horace Hooper".
John Horace Hooper was born in England in 1852. An active painter with a highly distinctive style about his landscapes and seascapes, Hooper made his debut in London at the Suffolk Street Gallery, where he exhibited from 1877-78. He exhibited six times at The Royal Academy, exhibited at The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, The Royal Hibernian Academy and The Arthur Tooth & Sons Gallery. John Horace Hooper was active until 1899 and died in 1906.
Further Reading & References:
- Benezit Dictionary of Artists, vol. VII, p. 278
Measurements: [framed] W: 32 H 21 7/8"; [canvas] W: 25 7/8" H: 15"
Condition Report:
Exceptional professionally conserved condition. Original lining and stretchers. Frame in excellent condition with numerous minor chips and touch ups. Light craquelure to surface. [UNDER UV] milky-green cast of new varnish makes surface a bit difficult to comprehensively examine; numerous old touch ups in the sky - one 2" vertical craquelure touch up mid-mid quadrant above castle; touch up size of a dime in sky far top-left quadrant; some purple-flourescence in a few spots of grass (marsh on left-mid / grass beneath work horse right-mid), but these appear to be the original pigment fluorescing.