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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Aug 2016 ~ 6.30pm - Part 1 (Lots 1 - 78)
  30 Aug 2016 ~ 2.30pm - Part 2 (Lots 79 - 328)
• Lot #:
  38
• Lot Description:
  Henry Gritten
  (1818-1873)
  (On the Rhine) 1852
  oil on canvas
  76 x 92 cm
  signed and dated lower right: H. GRITTEN / 1852
• Provenance:
  Private collection, Launceston
• Exhibited:
  (probably) L. Holder, Launceston, 1895
• References:
  (probably) 'Current topics: Fine art', Launceston Examiner, Launceston, 28 February 1895, p. 5
• Notes:
  Rediscovered after 120 years in the shadows of a private Launceston collection, View of the Rhine, 1852 is a superb example of Henry Gritten's finest European river-scapes. The son of an English art dealer, Henry Gritten and his artistic talents benefitted from early encouragement since he was already painting in earnest by the age of fourteen. This precocious ambition saw him exhibiting in London's Royal Academy at seventeen, where his pictures would regularly be met favourably for the next thirteen years, until 1849 when he left England - and never to return. Whilst building a career and reputation in London, he was said to have moved in the circles of the great contemporary R.A. painters David Roberts, Clarkson Stanfield and Sir Edwin Landseer. Furthermore, it appears his paintings enjoyed 'the favour of the late Prince Consort [Prince Albert], the Duke of Norfolk and the Marquis of Westminster.'1 We do not know precisely what drove Gritten out of London2, but like many of his European colleagues, including Eugene von Gu rard and George Rowe, he was probably drawn to Australia on news of the Victorian gold rush. He arrived in the Western District (via New York and California) in 1853.3 And like most of his artistic contemporaries, he was mostly unsuccessful in the venture and quickly traded in his fossicking pan for his painting palette. He soon left for Hobart, before moving on to Campbelltown where he set up a photography and painting studio, exhibiting copies of works by other artists as well as scenes from the Rhine river.4 Between 1862 and 1863, he made Launceston his home, then finally settled in Melbourne. There, he made a name for himself and in 1866, his View of Jackson's Creek entered the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria - one of the first Australian landscapes to do so. In 1870 he became a founding member of the Victorian Academy of the Arts, where he exhibited, inter alia, Andermach on the Rhine.5 In less than three years he died from an epileptic seizure, at his easel in Carlton. Although View of the Rhine was executed in 1852, when the artist was recorded to be in the United States, its origins began several years earlier, when Gritten had left England for a tour of Northern Europe. He probably produced sketches and watercolours on this voyage, hoping to one day develop them into paintings. The present work is probably the 'View of the Rhine' exhibited with L. Holder in Launceston in 1895. One commentator described the work in detail: 'in the foreground the scene is enlivened by a fine representation of one of the strange craft peculiar to the waters of the noble river, and in the middle distance and back ground are huge cliffs with a castle in ruins, which stand out in bold relief and look rugged and imposing in a full blaze of light. The general tone of the picture is mellowed down with age and is a fine study for the young artist.'6 Although Gritten's European scenes remain strangely undervalued (Melbourne, 1867 was purchased in 2005 by the National Gallery of Victoria for $294,250), they nevertheless exhibit Gritten's keen eye for recording quotidian details, albeit through a romantic lens, as well as an interest in dramatically lit architectural settings. In these two areas, Gritten is perhaps closer to the art of Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts than previously considered. And even among these great peers, his art holds its own. Petrit Abazi 1 The Argus, Melbourne, 16 January, 1873, p. 5 2 Henry (or possibly his father) sold his art collection through auction in 1849, the same year Gritten left England; see 'Collection of fine pictures, the property of Mr Gritten, late of Trafalgar Square', The Times, London, 16 April 1849, p. 12 3 Though it is generally believed that Gritten arrived in Melbourne in 1853, one obituary notes that he arrived in Melbourne in 1850 or 1851, see Ibid. 4 'Our Monthly Summary', Launceston Examiner, Launceston, 18 October 1860, p. 3 5 Jennifer Phipps, (Joan Kerr ed.), The Dictionary of Australian Artists: Painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992, p. 328 6 'Current topics: Fine art', Launceston Examiner, Launceston, 28 February 1895, p. 5
• Estimate:
  A$16,000 - 24,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.