Nathaniel Hone (1831-1917) Landscape with Cattle by Water,...

Hammer

€4,200

Nathaniel Hone (1831-1917)

Landscape with Cattle by Water, O.O.C., 46cms x 61cms (18" x 24"). (1)

Although regarded as one of Ireland’s finest landscape painters of the Impressionist period, Nathaniel Hone the Younger also had a strong Romantic sensibility, as evidenced in this mood-filled scene of cattle by a watering place at dusk. Surrounded by a fence, the still waters of the pond reflect the darkening sky. Black rain-filled clouds contrast with the intense ultramarine blue sky beyond. A line of trees in the distance marks the horizon, separating fields and water from the sky. The faintest touch of yellow and pink on the horizon reveals Hone’s sensitivity to weather and climate. The painting also reveals the influence of the Barbizon School, a colony of plein-air artists that flourished near Fontainebleau in the mid nineteenth century, Hone had perfected his landscape painting technique during the 1860’s, when he lived in and around the village of Barbizon. He was an active member of the group, which included (at various times) Corot, Rousseau, Courbet, and Henri Harpignies, with whom he was particularly friendly. In the late 1860’s, Hone exhibited both at the Royal Academy and the Salons in Paris. In 1875 he returned to Ireland to live at his family’s estate and farm at Malahide, where, apart from annual trips to the West of Ireland, he remained for the rest of his life. It is likely that this scene is set near Malahide, as are many of his beach scenes, and depictions of cattle. Based on direct observation, Hones studies of Irish skies are among his finest works, redolent of Constable’s cloud studies. Although best-known for his daytime scenes, with cattle grazing contentedly under cloudy skies, he also delighted in depicting evening and night scenes, as in A Wooded Landscape, Moonlight Effect (National Gallery of Ireland).

Born in Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin, Hone was a descendant of the brother of the eighteenth-century painter Nathaniel Hone. After working for a period for the Midland Great Western Railway Company, of which his father was a director, in 1853 he decided to take up art. He then studied for two years in Paris, under the history painters Adolphe Yvon and Thomas Couture, before moving to Barbizon. After returning to Ireland, in 1880 Hone was elected a member of the RHA, and fourteen years later was appointed professor of painting at the Academy. After his death, his widow gifted most of the contents of his studio to the National Gallery, including some five hundred paintings. The National Gallery retained several hundred but sold many. It is not known if this is one of those works, or one that was sold during the artist’s lifetime. Hone was not diligent in signing his work, and many of his paintings are unsigned.

Dr. Peter Murray, 2023