Henry Room (1802-1850)
| Artist Name | Henry Room (1802-1850) |
|---|---|
| Title | Forsaken Innocence - Portrait of a Lady with Harvest |
| Description | Henry Room, noted Birmingham artist, painted this lovely Victorian portrait oil painting. It was painted in 1842 and exhibited at the Society of British Artists the same year, entitled Forsaken Innocence. It is a charming half length portrait of a young lady in a hat, dark ringlets gleaming and ruby red lips slightly smiling. She is holding a sheaf of wheat with trees beyond. The detail and brushwork are lovely. A super pastoral oil painting and an accomplished example of Henry Room's work with excellent provenance. . Signed lower left. Indistinctly inscribed to label verso. |
| Provenance | Exhibited at the Society of British Artists 1842 no. 63 entitled Forsaken Innocence. Mentioned in “German Compliments to British Art,” The Art-Union (Dec. 1842), 279-281. Comments by Dr. Henry Merz on the exhibition of the Society of British Artists (Suffolk Street, Pall-Mall East); p.280: “In this exhibition we find also the peculiar sentimentalism of the English school, in No. 129, ‘Sterne’s Poor Maria,’ by F. Stacpoole; No. 63, ‘Forsaken Innocence’ (a coquettish young lady with a sheaf of gleanings in her apron), by H. Room” Berwick House, Shropshire. James Watson was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham in 1818, He bought Berwick House In August 1875. With the renovations on the mansion house nearing completion, by 1879 Watson turned his sights to forming a collection of suitably impressive paintings and furnishings for the recreated rooms. |
| Medium | Oil on Panel |
| Size | 25 x 30 inches |
| Frame | Housed in an ornate gilt frame, 38 inches by 33 inches and in good condition. |
| Condition | Good condition. |
| Biography | Henry Room (1802–1850) was an English portrait-painter, from an evangelical background in Birmingham. Henry Room was born in Newhall Street, the son of John Room, a japanner, and studied at Joseph Barber's drawing school on Great Charles Street. An original member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, he was also one of the group of artists that broke away from the Society in 1828 to exhibit at a rival institution in Temple Row. Room was in London in the late 1820s, sharing a studio with Peter Hollins in Old Bond Street. He was a deacon in the church of John Morison. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1826 onwards and completed many portraits of missionaries, academics and reformers which were engraved by John Cochran. Room maintained close links with Birmingham and was appointed as auditor for the newly formed Birmingham Society of Artists in 1842. He had a reputation as a painter of portraits, and received commissions, some of his portraits being engraved. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826. He practised for some time at Birmingham. He painted a portrait of Thomas Clarkson for the Central Negro Emancipation Committee, and also two groups of the Interview of Queen Adelaide with the Madagascar Princes at Windsor, and The Caffre Chiefs' Examination before the House of Commons Committee. Many of his portraits were executed for the Evangelical Magazine. He painted a series of medical men for Thomas Joseph Pettigrew's Biographical Memoirs (1839). He died in London on 27 August 1850, aged 48. |
| Price | £5500 |
