Lot 2033
WYNFORD DEWHURST (1864-1941)
VERSAILLES: AUTUMN EFFECT
Signed, inscribed with title and price (200 Guineas) in ink on a fragmented label on the stretcher, oil on canvas
80.5 x 99cm.
Provenance: Purchased from the artist by the Howell family of Cardiff; thence by descent to Miss Joyce Howell of Penzance; and thence to Mr and Mrs William Howell of Haverfordwest; Private Collection
Dewhurst was born in Manchester and embarked on legal training but, aged 27, a love of art lured him to Paris and he was attracted by Impressionism. His 1904 book, dedicated to Calude Monet, Impressionist Painting: Its Genesis and Development, was the first important assessment of the movement to be publsihed in English. Dewhurst maintained that the English tradition underpinned contemporary French painting: ".. It cannot be too clearly understood that the Impressionistic idea is of English birth."
The greater part of Dewhurst's work was produced in France, initially in the Seine valley (close to his mentor Monet) but also in the Creuse valley in central France where he rented a house for six months each year from 1904-1914. Latterly he spent much time painting the gardens and fountains at the Palace of Versailles. This work is unusual in that it shows the grounds in autumn.
We are grateful to Roger Brown, who wrote the book Wynford Dewhurst: Manchester's Monet to accompany the 2017 exhibition of Dewhurst's work at Manchester City Art Gallery, for his help in cataloguing this lot. Mr Brown dates this work to c.1914.
