Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are delighted to offer for sale this appealing oil on canvas by the artist WILLIAM HENRY LATHAM BARNES, who has signed the painting Latham Barnes in the lower left hand corner. The painting depicts a very young girl, with a very pugnacious expression on her face, holding the collar of her border collie dog. She is wearing a double-breasted dark blue coat with brass buttons, and a hat with a blue ribbon. Judging by her clothing, we would date the painting to around 1910-1920.

Despite an exhaustive search through our reference books and online, including a partial search of the census records, we have been unable to ascertain much information about this artist. We found a birth listing for a William Henry Latham Barnes in Manchester in 1865 and a further listing for William Henry Barnes in Sheffield in the 1911 Census, which would tie up with the painting of Cleakum Inn in Malin Bridge, Sheffield mentioned below. In our reference book 'Painters in the Northern Counties of England and Wales' by Professor Dennis Child (Second Edition), we have found an alhabetical listing for 'Barnes W.H.L. Exh. 1887 Manchester Man', which means that he exhibited at an unnamed Manchester exhibition in 1887, but that Dennis Child has no more biographical information about him.

Having been contacted by a relative of the artist, we understand that he lived in the Riverlin Valley, Sheffield, Yorkshire. He was also a portrait painter and, in his later years restored paintings. He had a shop at 16 Change Alley in Sheffield. He was commissioned by Lord Shaftesbury and his relative has a testimonial from Countess Shaftesbury.

Auction records achieved for works by this artist may be found at artnet.com (5 listings), artprice, findartinfo and arcadja has 3. However, Bonhams have sold three of his paintings, an oil of a horses head, dated 1891, in 2006, which made £720 inc. premium, a portrait of a french poodle in 2008 at Bonhams Los Angeles, which made $1,553 inc., and a still life in 2011 which made £1,250 inc. at Bonhams Chester. There is also a painting of a bulldog available to view on artnet.

We have also found a landscape of an Inn in Sheffield, which was ruined by the flood in Sheffield in 1864 for sale on google at £975, although we believe it must have been painted later.

The painting has been newly framed in an antiqued gilt beaded frame and is ready to hang.

Image size: 19 1/2" x 17 1/2" - 49.5cm x 44.5cm

Frame size: 24 3/4" x 22 7/8" - 62.85cm x 58.1cm

Medium: Oils on Winsor & Newton canvas

Condition: Very good. There are no repairs to the canvas, which is clean and taut with no craquelure and only slight stretcher marks. The frame is new.