Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are delighted to offer for sale this beautifully executed portrait of a lady in a bonnet, probably from the North East of England, by the Newcastle born artist Thomas Eyre Macklin RBA, who has signed the painting in the lower left hand corner and dated it 1895. The portrait depicts a lady in her late middle age, who is wearing a white bonnet. She has an off white scarf with a gold edge wrapped around her shoulders, crossing at the front. This is an excellent character work.

Thomas Eyre Macklin was born on the 30th March 1863, the son of a landscape painter John E.Macklin. By 1881, Thomas was still living at home with his parents at 43 Maple Street, Elswick, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is listed in the census of that year as a portrait artist, although only 18 years old. In 1884 he went to London and studied at Calderon's Art School. He later studied at the Royal Academy Schools, winning a silver medal in 1888 and in Paris. He lived in France for some years and painted plein air subjects and portraits.

He was a painter of portraits and figurative subjects and landscapes in watercolours. He was also a sculptor and an illustrator. He was special artist to the Pall Mall Gazette 1888-1892 and contributed to various other magazines. His most important work as a sculptor was the South African War Memorial in Newcastle unveiled in 1907. He also designed the Land Wars Memorial in Auckland, New Zealand, winning the competition in 1914 and the Bangor, County Down War Memorial, unveiled in 1927.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy (17 works) from 1889, also at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1882, Walker AG in Liverpool and the Royal Society of British Artists, where he was elected RBA in 1902. He also exhibited at the Paris Salon. He has studios in both London and Newcastle.

There are 20 of his works in the National Collection which can be viewed at ArtUK.org or can be seen at 9 venues around the country, including the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, where there is a painting of the founder of the gallery Alexander Laing by Macklin, South Shields AG, Newcastle University, Ulster Museum, Shipley AG, Bangor Castle, Belfast Harbour Commissioners and Scolton Manor Museum.

He married Alice Martha Philpott in 1893, but in the 1939 Register, he was a widower in hospital in Watford. He died aged 80 at Kersbrook, Budleigh Salterton, Devon on 1st August, 1943.

Please note that in most auction catalogues and art reference books, his birth year is given as 1867, but this is incorrect. If you look up his death in 1943, his obituaries and his birth all records say that he was born in 1863, as does the 1881 census and his marriage registration.

The painting is framed in a pale grey, ornate, swept frame, with some gilding, and a gilt slip, which suits the portrait very well. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 8 3/4" x 6 3/4" - 22.25cm x 17cm

Frame size: 15 1/2" x 13 1/2" - 39.35cm x 34.25cm

Medium: Oils on chamfered Newman wood panel

Condition: Very good. The surface is clean with some fine craquelure and no losses. The frame is in very good condition.