Add a few noughts for a sunny landscape?

The work of the impressionists continues to be popular, despite current trends for more modern art. This painting is by the artist Eugène Boudin who befriended the 18 year old Claude Monet, and persuaded him to give up his teenage caricature drawings and to become a landscape painter, helping to inspire in him a love of the play of light on water:

The Boudin painting made £340,000 in the recent auction, quite a high price for a glimpse of summer days and a few beach huts. Boudin’s paintings are usually small as he painted en plein air- in the open air, this one was only 19 by 31 cms, The reason for the massive price of £340,000 for this example is because it shows a sunny day and has many figures in it.However, there are occasional grey days in northern France as seen with the painting of the Jetty at Trouville, Normandy which made a very reasonable £37,000.

Eugène Louis Boudin (1824-1898) was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors. He was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores. His fellow painters called him the "king of the skies".Born at Honfleur, Boudin was the son of a harbor pilot, and at age 10 he worked on a steamboat that ran between Le Havre and Honfleur. In 1835 the family moved to Le Havre, where Boudin's father opened a store for stationery and picture frames. Here the young Eugene worked, later opening his own small shop.In his picture framing shop, Boudin came into contact with artists working in the area and he exhibited their paintings in the shop, including the work of Jean-François Millet, together they encouraged the young Boudin to follow an artistic career, and at the age of 22 he started painting full-time. When he met the Dutch painter Johan Jongkind, Boudin was advised to paint outdoors en plein air and his inimitable style of painting was established.

This painting of the beach at Deauville by Eugène Boudin, painted outdoors it measures only 19 by 32 cms and made a fabulous £340,000 in the recent specialist auction.

The Jetty at Trouville by Eugène Boudin, this painting is 21 by 27 cms, painted in 1882 it made £37,000 in the London auction.

Around this time Boudin befriended the young Claude Monet, and persuaded him to give up his teenage caricature drawings and to become a landscape painter, helping to inspire in him a love of bright hues and the play of light on water so evident in Monet's later Impressionist paintings. The two remained lifelong friends and Monet later paid tribute to Boudin’s early influence. Boudin joined Monet and his young friends in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1873, but he never considered himself a radical leader in this style.The impressionistic work of Stanley Royle is well known in Derbyshire and Sheffield and this painting of “Baslow Bridge” made a world record price at the time it was sold of £26,000 the picture was sold by a local collector who said “Tremendous news about the auction result….What a great result - just as you predicted.”

Stanley Royle (1888-1961) was a post impressionist landscape painter, born in 1888 at Stalybridge in Lancashire. His family moved to Ecclesfield a rural outlying district of Sheffield in South Yorkshire in 1893, where his father became the stationmaster at the nearby railway station.

His elder cousin, Herbert Royle (1870 - 1958) already a highly successful and recognised landscape painter, was the strongest influence on the young Stanley, and it was he who encouraged him to pursue art as a career. He began studying in 1904 at the Sheffield Technical School of Art and in 1908 succeeded in gaining a scholarship that enabled him to continue his studies at the art school.

In 1916 the family moved to Priest Hill Farm on Quiet Lane in the beautiful Mayfield Valley, outside Sheffield on the edge of the Derbyshire moors. They were poor and could only afford to rent a small cottage attached to the farmhouse. During this time he was successful in having two major works accepted by the Royal Academy indicating his increasing importance as a talented British landscape painter.

The Pack Horse Bridge at Baslow by Stanley Royle made a world record at the time it was sold in a Derbyshire auction, it made £26,000.

He did not like the harsh lighting effects of the midday sun as it flattened the subject, but preferred early morning or mid to late afternoon and evening light; and so he developed a habit of having a nap in the middle of the day. He made several oil studies of Baslow Bridge in Derbyshire and his daughter related the story of how, when she was a young girl, she and her mother travelled from their home near Ringinglowe to Baslow one summer’s day, partly by bus and partly walking, to meet up with him. They arrived around midday and although they could see his easel and canvas all set up on the riverbank, the artist himself was nowhere to be seen. A search discovered him stretched out and lying fast asleep, on a narrow stone shelf underneath one of the arches of the bridge, and within inches of the water! He was waiting for the light to change.

Perhaps you also have antiques and collectables that might be valuable? If so, it is worth getting the advice of an Independent Antiques Valuer to assess your items.

For further information please contact Vivienne Milburn on Bakewell 01629 640210 or Mobile 07870 238788 www.viviennemilburn.co.ukvivienne@viviennemilburn.co.uk