Lot 160: JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE (1848-1884) SIR GEORGE LEWIS

watercolour 27 by 21.5 cm.; 10 1/2 by 8 1/2 in. The French artist Bastien-Lepage became well known in England in the early 1880s, being admired both from his scenes of rustic life and for his portraits of men and women in fashionable society. He was invited to stay at Windsor in the summer of 1879, and Sir Coutts Lindsay, proprietor of the Grosvenor Gallery, probably met Bastien-Lepage in the course of this stay, resulting in Bastien-Lepage sending nine works to the Grosvenor Gallery 1880 summer exhibition. During the remaining years of his life, he made frequent visits to London, and made friends with a number of artists in the circle of Grosvenor exhibitors. His friendship with Edward Burne-Jones is documented by the highly characterful watercolour portrait that Bastien-Lepage made of him; this particular drawing belonged to the Lewis family until 1968 when Miss Katherine Lewis gave it to Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery. The drawing of Burne-Jones and the present sketch of George Lewis were likely to have been made on the same occasion. Each of the two men is seen wrapped up in a coat and hat, and placed against an indefinite green and grey background. PROVENANCE The Lewis family; Mrs Elizabeth Wansbrough.