Joseph Milner Kite (1862-1946)
| Artist Name | Joseph Milner Kite (1862-1946) |
|---|---|
| Title | Caronte Canal with Eglise Saint Genies, Martigues, France |
| Description | This superb British oil painting is by noted artist Joseph Miler Kite. Painted circa 1910, the setting is the Caronte canal in Martigues, on the mediterranean coast of France. The old town of Martigues is essentially split into three parts by the canals that join the Etang de Berre with the ocean. Because of the canals, Martigues is also promoted as being Provencal Venice and is very picturesque. The composition is looking across the canal towards Saint Genies church. There are moored boats in the foreground and the church is bathed in soft mediterranean light, reflected in the water, beneath a blue sky. The brushwork and colour palette are superb. This is a charming painting and an excellent example of Kite's work. Signed lower right. |
| Provenance | Sussex estate. |
| Medium | Oil on Canvas |
| Size | 27 x 25 inches |
| Frame | Housed in a complementary frame, 34 inches by 32 inchesand in good condition. |
| Condition | Good condition. |
| Biography | Joseph Milner Kite (1862-1946). Milner Kite was a painter in oils and watercolours of portraits, figures and landscape. He was born in Taunton, Devon, his father a chemist. He initially worked in a London studio under William P Frith, before leaving England to study in Antwerp in 1881. In 1883 he continued his studies at the Academie Julian in Paris, under Bouguereau and Laurens. He visited Normandy and Pont Aven with the Irish painter Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940). In 1891 he returned to the Academie Julian to study under Lefebvre and Benjamin Constant. From 1900 he regularly spent the winter in Concarneau, Brittany, and visited the artist colonies in Cornwall. A series of paintings of children on beaches are taken to be indicative of time spent in the West Country. Between 1886 and 1908 he exhibited widely at the RA, RBA, RBSA, Liverpool, Manchester and the Paris Salon amongst other places where he worked. He is known to have painted in St Ives, Cornwall, Pont Aven, Concarneau, Grez-sur-Loing, Morocco, Spain and the USA where he exhibited at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania (1905). Milner Kite died on 5 July 1945, having survived two world wars, at Millau, Aveyron, South of France at the age of 82. The Milner Kite Scholarship, set up posthumously by his brother and shared between the Royal College of Art and the Slade School, enables one student each summer to study in France. |
| Price | £5500 |
