catalog text
WILLIAM SAMUEL JAY (BRITISH, 1843-1933) ANTIQUE LANDSCAPE PAINTING
Signed lower left "W. Jay"
Item # 1406LPP23P
This is a moving antique landscape painting by William Samuel Jay, one that is vivid in it's high chroma palette and extraordinary in it's highly detailed execution. A large and impressive work, the scene is bright and optimistic, capturing the early hours of the day as two figures pick flowers in a meadow along the forest's edge. Professionally conserved in the last decade or so, the surface is in simply outstanding condition other than a light scratch in the wooded areas - we can certainly have this restored if it is bothersome to you, though it can take several weeks to complete depending on our conservationist's schedule. The level of variation in the subject is noteworthy, the intricate foreground with scattered new growth foliage peaking through fallen leaves and the around the fallen trunk, only a pair of trees remaining in a mostly cleared meadow. It is an impressive rendering of the balance between spring and autumn, identified as being a Spring scene on the placard, but the autumnal colors of the trees along the background suggest a later season. The work was probably executed around the turn of the century, probably 1880-1910.
William Samuel Jay was a member of the Society of British Artists, exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy and Suffolk Street. His landscape work is as scientific and technical as it is emotional.
Further Reading:
- E. Benezit, Dictionary of Artists, Gründ, Vol VII, p. 776
Measurements: [frame] 42 1/2" wide x 30 3/8" high; [canvas] 36 1/4" wide x 24 3/8" high
Condition Report:
Cleaned and relined professionally in the last decade. 1 1/2" long horizontal scratch to surface mid-left quadrant (in trees). Bright and vibrant surface with light craquelure. Frame regilded and not the original frame. Not examined out of the frame. Under UV: sky with scattered touch ups; inpainting along upper trunks of right-front tree; shadows by logs low-right quadrant; some pigment flare in tree'd background - these possibly touch ups. Please review all images in the slideshow for a full overview of condition.
