Lot 401: EDWARD JOHN GREGORY 1850-1909

oil on canvas

61 by 76 cm., 24 by 30 in.

London, Royal Academy, 1893, no. 641

Royal Academy Pictures, 1893, repr. pg. 61

The painter and illustrator Edward John Gregory was born in Southampton and worked in the drawing office of the P & O Shipping Company before deciding to become a professional artist. He was persuaded to move to London by the painter/teacher Hubert Von Herkommer and studied at the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. His varied skills led him to work as a decorator at the Victoria and Albert Museum and to produce illustrations for The Graphic magazine. His famous painting is Boulter's Lock; Sunday Afternoon of 1898, which is now at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, which led to his election as a Member of the Royal Academy.



The Spoils of Opportunity is a typically light-hearted painting by Gregory in which a wily and rather well-fed cat has taken his chance to steal a fish from a young angler as he is preoccupied with a beautiful girl who has been passing by.