I came across three small watercolours this week. They were not signed, but to be honest, it did not take that much research to identify the artist involved. My research led me to #MicheleDeVito. Her first name might also have been spelt as ‘Michela’. 
Little is known in regards to this female painter. She was born in Abruzzi, Italy and was known to have worked and resided in Naples when she became a known and respected painter. She may have been the daughter or possibly sister of Camillo de Vito another well known painter of gouache scenes of real life.
Michela worked in the early part of the 19th century. This is corroborated by the watermark found on one of the pieces I have. The watermark reads ‘ J Whatman Turkey Mill 1837‘. As an artist she was described as “A refined painter, very skilled when it came to drawings, she had the characteristic to make her subject more gentle, compared to her male collegues”.
The first image of the seated woman has in inscription in the bottom right which reads ‘Nicabelli’. The second – mother and child – has an inscription which reads ‘Francavillo’. The third – mother and baby – has no identifiers as to which town or area she comes from.
Three love pieces. Very typical of her work and historically important in regards to the history of local folk costume of the time.
Lee moved to Jakarta to become an art editor for a newspaper but left after six years to establish his own advertising agency. Although, he owned his own company, Lee never gave up his own artistic pursuits. Lee became a full time artist in 1941. He was imprisoned for a time during the Japanese occupation. While imprisoned he befriended Sukarno (later to become Indonesia’s first president). After the occupation, Lee traveled to Holland to work and study.
The four woodcuts show kabuki actors in their dramatic makeup and poses which they became reknowned for.
Xu was a master of both oils and ink, even so, most of his works are in the Chinese traditional style. In his endeavour to create a modern national art form, Xu combined Western perspective and compositional techniques with his loved traditional Chinese style. In his teach, Xu emphasised that artistic technique should be subject to the artist concept and life experience.
William Hole (1846-1917) was an English illustrator, etcher and engraver. He was born in Salisbury but after the death of his father, his family moved to Edinburgh. He was educated in Edinburgh and served a 5 year apprenticeship as a civil engineer but truly wanted to be an artist. He was a successful painter and around 1878 he tried his hand at etching and engraving.
Hole specialised in industrial, historical, and biblical scenes. Although he was an Englishman, his artwork was focused on Scottish story and events. His work as an etcher and engraver was/is highly regarded. His translation of one art-form into another was considered wonderful and should rank him among the greats of that art.
Both line engravings are ‘first state’. The first displayed is #Stamford, Lincolnshire. A line engraving by William Miller. It bears the citations ‘ painted by JMW Turner’ (bl) and ‘engraved by William Miller’ (br) and the Turner Studio blind stamp just off the bottom edge of the image – but no title – even though there is room for it on the sheet.
The second image is of the magnificent #ShipoftheFens #ElyCathedral. Again a first state. There is lettering at all – no credits or title – but again has the blind stamp of the Turner Studio just below the image. This plate was engraved by Thomas Higham and certainly displays Turner’s expertise as an architectural draughtsman.
The work in my collection (shown) is a superb monochrome watercolour displaying a mother and child in a desert scene. I took the title from other etchings displaying almost the same image. They were all titled #HagarandIshmael, so I trusted the information. But as with numerous original artworks and their offspring via various artistic fields, they are renamed. The finished oil painting of this image hangs in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden. The title of the oil painting is #MarywiththeChristChild. Why or how the title was changed, we might never know. Certainly the image might represent either of the known titles.
Beckett and an artist by name of Robert Wilson were the first two artists in England who specialised in mezzotint. Beckett was mainly a portraitist although he did engrave biblical and allegorical subjects. All his plates can be dated between 1681 to 1688.
The hand of a master.
The image shown is an ink drawing by Sergeant K Moss (4697586 – his military ID number) in 1944. Sergeant Moss was a member of the #FieldSecurityService. Their main aim was to gather intelligence/information from prisoners of war and civilians friendly to the Allies. The data collected would then hopefully assist the Allied troops to overcome the Germans. After the war the FSS immediately took to investigating Nazi war crimes and those who perpetrated them.
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