Auction Preview. Prize-winning Pictures: The Charm of the Naïve, July 2025

During the late 18th and early 19th century, an agricultural revolution took place in England that matched the better-known Industrial Revolution. Due to the general rise in population, especially in urban centres, more and more private land was given over to livestock and dairy production. Wealthy landowners began to breed animals larger and fatter than ever before, and out of this sprang an enthusiastic market for pictorial representations of their achievements.

A naïve style of portraying prize cows, pigs, and sheep in a landscape became established, which reached its apogee in the first quarter of the 19th century. Large-scale paintings as well as fine colour prints based on them were commissioned by owners, not just to satisfy their own pride, but for commercial and advertising purposes.

A wide range of original paintings on this subject will be offered in our Fine Art sale on the 16th July, with a further selection of fine livestock engravings in our Books & Prints sale on the 23rd July, all of which offer an interesting perspective on this agricultural and artistic boom.

The Fine Art sale offers a rare opportunity to purchase particularly fine Prize Cow subjects, such as Saffron, a South Ham Cow of 1857 by William Widgery (1822-1893), lot 118 at £2,000-£3,000, and the English Shorthorn Heifer, 1842 by S. Kirk of Derby (active early to mid 19^th century) lot 115 at £1,500-£2,000.

 William Albert Clark’s charming double portrait of Eyton Winnie the 2nd and Eyton Spotty the 4th, dating from 1947 (lot 125, £1,500-£2,000) was commissioned by their breeder Thomas Campbell Eyton, a well-known 19th-century cattle breeder who wrote The Herd Book of Hereford Cattle (1846). An original watercolour portrait of Thomas Eyton will be offered as lot 97 on the 16^th of July.

Canine Portraiture was another feature of 19th and 20th-century animal paintings, such as the charmingly naive Border Collie in a Landscape, circa 1850, (lot 117 £500-£800). We are pleased to offer several other canine portraits including Portrait of a Terrier, circa 1850, (lot 116  £700 - £1,000) and Pleasington Pride, a Sealyham Terrier, 1921, by Henry Crowther (lot 124, £300-£500), who was the first artist to attend Crufts Dog Show in order to obtain commissions. 

See the full catalogue for the July 2025 Fine Art auction here.

See the full catalogue for the July Books & Prints auction here.