Wednesday 4th July 2018
A painting by an artist born in Warminster in 1854, is for sale by auction this month.
Lot 153 in the auction of watercolours, paintings and prints, being held by Dominic Winter of South Cerney, Gloucestershire, on 18th July 2018 (bidding is available online), is a watercolour by Alfred Joseph Warne-Browne.
It is described by the auctioneers as: “watercolour on paper showing sailing boats and rowing boat, with view of Penzance in the background, 19.5 x 44cm (7.75 x 17.25ins), signed and dated right side, mounted, gilt moulded frame, glazed.”
The auctioneers have noted that: “Alfred Warne-Browne, c.1855-1915, was born in Warminster, Wiltshire, and spent much of his life in Cornwall, exhibiting at Newlyn Art Gallery from its opening exhibition in 1895.”
The estimate for the watercolour is £100 to £150 (GBP).
For further details and to bid online, see:
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/dominic-winter-book-auctions/catalogue-id-srdom10110/lot-2e231a77-5158-4a60-80b1-a9120111a177
The Cornwall Artists Index, notes that Alfred Joseph Warne Browne RSO, aka Warne Browne, was:
“Born in Warminster, Wiltshire, the artist was a London-based painter (address in Swiss Cottage) until the 1891 Census, when he and his wife, Edith Clara, were living in the parish of St Uny, Lelant, near St Ives.”
“His painting for the 1890 exhibition at Dowdeswells, which was entitled November Weather-St Ives, indicates that they had moved to Cornwall some time earlier. His daughter Constance Mabel, 3 years old at that time, had been born in Berlin, an Overseas British subject.”
“Warne Browne exhibited at Newlyn from the opening exhibition in 1895, his paintings always proving popular. A major sale he achieved at NAG was of seven sketches on sea subjects in 1899. By 1901 he and his wife and three daughters had moved to live in Ruan Minor, the address he gave for exhibition purposes. He was a member of the NSA. Although he exhibited at the Royal Academy, he did not achieve the recognition he deserved in the UK. However, his seascapes were sought after by Americans.”
“Tovey has found an image of Pilchard Fishing with the Seine Net, reproduced in 1901 in The Sphere, which was simultaneously showing at an exhibition at the St James Gallery in London. This scene shows a large group of fisherman working their large seine net, possibly off the coast of St Ives, though the location is indeterminate.”
“In 1905 he exhibited two paintings at NAG, which were both sold to a Liverpool buyer, Winter Weather and Lizard Coast; and Kynance two years later. In 1913 he resided at Lower Shiplake, Oxon.”
“Upon his death in Ruan Minor from a stroke in 1915, the artist was described in the Helston Advertiser and the West Briton as ‘a true Bohemian, with a highly developed artistic temperament. Mr Warne Browne loved the sea, and painted it with a sincerity and fidelity which ought to have secured for him a higher place in the world of art’.”
https://cornwallartists.org/cornwall-artists/alfred-joseph-warne-browne
Danny Howell adds:
Alfred Joseph Warne Browne was one of the sons of Joseph Warne Browne, an ironmonger and gas fitter, whose premises in the 1850s and early 1860s were in the Market Place, Warminster, “opposite the Wilts And Dorset Bank”. (The Wilts & Dorset Bank was taken over by Lloyds in 1914). After 11 years of trading in Warminster, Joseph Warne Browne announced on 25th April 1861 that he was “about to remove to a distance” and would be selling all his stock at greatly reduced prices. He also informed the public that he had found a buyer for his business. On 1st July 1861 Joseph Warne Browne disposed of his business to Walter Lanning.
