|
Cider House Galleries Ltd
|
|
|
|
|
JOHN DUVALL (1816-1892)
Mare & Foal in a Field
( England
1816 to 1892
)
|
Dimensions
16.00inch wide
16.00inch high
(40.64 cm wide 40.64 cm high)
|
Framed Dimensions
22.50inch framed width
22.50inch framed height
(57.15 cm framed width 57.15 cm framed height)
|
Literature:
D63712
MARE & FOAL IN A FIELD
JOHN DUVALL
1816 - 1892 Signed
Oil on canvas oval 16 x 16 inches
Framed size 22 ½ x 22 ½ inches
John Duvall was born probably in the County of Kent. He was descended from a Huguenot family and the famous Kemble family. It appears the family moved from Ramsgate in Kent to Ipswich before 1852. At this time Duvall was a portrait painter. In the Christchurch Mansion is a pair of portraits of Mr & Mrs F. Worts. In 1855 he is recorded “an Artist & Teacher of Drawing” and living in West-gate Street. It was about this time that the spread of photography caused a decline in portrait commissions; consequently Duvall began to specialize in horse portraits. He was responsible for the illustrations in the Suffolk Horse Society Stud book. This led him to being commissioned in 1868 to paint for Colonel Harlow of Hasketon the large oil now exhibited in the Ipswich Museum called, “Suffolk Show in Christchurch Park, Ipswich 1868”. The principal figures in this painting are all local worthies. (A Key to the figures appeared in the late Cordy S. Wolton’s Suffolk Agricultural Association: A Century’s Review 1931). John Duvall is shown half reclining in the foreground – the boy on the extreme left of the picture is one of his sons.
This picture marked Duvall’s entry into the field of the animal painters; he henceforth preserved a high reputation in this sphere. An old label on the reverse of one of his sheep paintings refers to him as the “famous animal painter”. Shortly after the commencement of the Ipswich Fine Art Society in 1875, Duvall became a member (also Chairman) and exhibited Ploughing in Kent together with a View of Edinburgh, which suggests that he visited Scotland earlier that year. In the same exhibition he also exhibited a view in Dorset. A tour of Wales in 1876 resulted in two Welsh views being exhibited that year. In 1877 he visited Jersey and by this time his name as an animal painter was so eminent that he was commissioned by His Grace the Duke of Hamilton to paint a group of his hunters. Later, in 1881, this was followed by a further picture of Gold Pippin.
For H.R.H. The Princess of Wales, John Duvall painted a picture called Castinet a duplicate of which was exhibited at the Ipswich Society in 1882. A further exhibited commission was a painting of Barcaldine for R. Peck, Esq., in the year 1884. Having the ability to paint portraits as well as horses enabled Duvall to succeed very well with his figures in his animal portraits.
In 1885 he painted a portrait of Mr.Alderton on Satan.
Very little is known about Duvall’s personal life but it is known he had a lady friend called Lavinia. She bore seven children, five boys and two girls, John, an auctioneer, married a daughter of John Ely Wright of Preston Manor Suffolk; Anthony, an engineer; Sidney, of Wisbech and Long Sutton; Harry, who emigrated; Frank, whose profession was banking; Lavinia, who married Thomas Davis; and Fanny.
John Duvall ceased exhibiting at the Ipswich Art Society in 1889 and at the age of seventy-six passed away at his residence, No 5 Handford Villas, Ranelagh Road, Ipswich. This was on the 13th May 1892.
Bibl: East Anglian Painters by Harold A.E. Day
|
|
|
Email a friend
Add to favourites
Search again
del.icio.us
