Darnley Fine Art

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Darnley Fine Art holds an extensive stock of fine paintings from the 16th to the 20th Century. We are a leading specialist in 19th Century Orientalist paintings of the Middle East and prints by David Roberts. We also try to have a good selection of Portraits and are one of the only galleries that deals in original paintings for Railway Poster’s from the 1930′s.

We have an extensive knowledge in these fields and advise clients on starting or adding to their collection, providing a detailed background to each artist’s work. Advice is also given on other important aspects of acquisition such as framing, hanging, insurance and the maintenance of works of art.

Darnley Fine Art is a member of BADA (the British Antique Dealers' Association), LAPADA (the Association of Art and Antique Dealers), and of CINOA the International Art and Antique Dealers Association

The works we offer are the finest available and competitively priced to ensure that our clients will always return to Darnley Fine Art for superb choice and quality when buying art. The gallery is placed in the heart of Chelsea. The website reflects a selection of the paintings we have available at any one time.

We have sold works to museums and public institutions around the world.

Darnley Fine Art are members of BADA, LAPADA and CINOA.

Henry Pether Outside the Doge’s Palace, Venice – POA
by Darnley Fine Art
Henry Pether
Flourished 1828 – 1865
Outside the Doge's Palace, Venice
Oil on canvas, signed lower left
Image size: 25 x 36 inches
Hade made giltwood frame
Pether’s lively sense of Venice as a great outdoor theatre is reflected in his shimmering brushwork, which invests the famous building of the National Library with an air of magic. Pether keeps a tension between the dark lines which define details of buildings and the entwined skeins of colour which evoke the rippling moon light playing across the lagoon, stone and figures.
The light of the full moon is offset by the warm pink of the Doge’s Palace and local colours of the area outside. Typical of Pether is the composition with strong diagonals which give a dynamic sense of receding space.
Here, Pether uses a personal technique, covering his canvas with blue before using a camera obscura to obtain exact shapes and perspective directly from real life.
Pether was supremely competent in the technique of representing moonlight shining through cloud by the use of soft glazes over patches of dense paint.
This view from outside the Doges Palace looking west towards the National library into the heart of Venice’s secular and religious power had been made famous by Canaletto in works such as The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day, c.1733-4 (Royal Collection). In the middle of the painting are the columns of St Theodore, the original patron saint of Venice, and St Mark, which then lead the eye through them into the distance to the San Giorgio Maggiore.
Pether delights in the complex, fourteenth century gothic façade of the Doge’s Palace, symbol of the city’s extraordinarily resilient republican government.
The painting is from the artist's mature period which was doubtless one of the commissions flooding in from clients, many of them English, who were undertaking the Grand Tour of Europe.
Details
Charles Pears Clipper at Sea Oil on Canvas – POA
by Darnley Fine Art
Charles Pears Clipper at Sea Oil on Canvas
Charles Pears P.S.M.A., R.O.I.
1873 – 1958
Clipper at Sea
Oil on canvas, signed lower right
Image size: 20 x 29 inches
Contemporary silver gilt frame

Details
J. A. Harington Bird The Drinking Well Oil on Canvas – POA
by Darnley Fine Art
J. A. Harington
1846 – 1936
The Drinking Well
Oil on canvas, signed lower right
Image size: 16 x 24 ½ inches (40.5 x 62.5 cm)
Hand made Orientalist gilt frame
Harington Bird was a painter of animals, often in watercolour. Born on 23rd May 1846, he was destined for the Army but took up painting instead. He studied at The Royal Academy Schools and in 1870, aged 24, exhibited his first picture there. A second Royal Academy exhibit, ‘On Sufferance’, followed in 1874 before Bird set off for Montreal, Canada, where he became an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy, but in 1885, after a ten year absence, he returned to England.
Once back, Bird resumed his Academy career and seems also to have been engaged in commissions, painting prominent English racehorses of the time. Around the turn of the century, Bird started to concentrate on the Arab horse, and probably visited North Africa to study this noble animal in its natural environment.
On the whole, Bird painted the Arabian horse in watercolour and achieved remarkable effects in this medium, capturing in particular the sheen of the horses’ coats and the dust of the desert.
Bird’s meticulous attention to equine anatomy and skill as an artist make him the leading horse painter of the Orientalist movement. His work is to be found in many prominent collections, including The Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace.
This painting is a rare oil, as he mainly painted in watercolour. The horses are depicted in profile, with the classical grace of a horse on the Parthenon frieze or a Stubbs. The pose conveys their elegant configuration, fine musculature and glossy coats. The desert setting is painted more broadly, as a strong backdrop in beautiful tones of blue with flecks of gold on the sunlit sky, so as not to detract from the visual impact of the powerful horses.
The coats of the three horses draw the viewer in to these magnificent animals. Two of the main reasons western artists travelled to the Middle East was for the strong light and the brilliant colours, both of which Bird uses to full effect in this scene.
Details
Bryan De Grineau The Land Speed Record Gouache, signed, dated 1927
by Darnley Fine Art
Bryan De Grineau
1883 – 1957
The Land Speed Record
Gouache, signed, dated 1927 lower left and stamped lower right
Image size: 14 x 15 1/4 inches
Hand made Art Deco frame
The Sunbeam 1000 HP Mystery, is a land speed record-breaking car built by the Sunbeam car company of Wolverhampton that was powered by two aircraft engines.
It was the first car to travel at over 200 mph. The car's last run was a demonstration circuit at Brooklands, running at slow speed on only one engine. It is today on display at the Heritage Motor Center at Gaydon, having been presented to the National Motor Museum by Sunbeam in 1958
Details
Norman Wilkinson CBE PRI Rhuddlan Castle Oil on Canvas – POA
by Darnley Fine Art
Norman Wilkinson CBE PRI
1878 – 1971
RHUDDLAN CASTLE
Oil on canvas, signed lower right
Image size: 30 x 45 inches (76 x 114 cm)
Hand made frame
Provenance
Commissioned by London, Midland & Scottish Railway 1929
Private Collection
Sir Norman Wilkinson was a successful marine painter and illustrator. He was also responsible for developing the concept of “dazzle camouflage” for British warships during the First World War. But it was as a poster artist that he reached his highest artistic level.
In 1905, Wilkinson was commissioned by the London and North Western Railways to produce a poster advertising their rail/steam link to Ireland. Recognising the opportunity to create a new approach to railway poster design, he depicted the product as just one element of a broader landscape. It was the first time this had been done and its revolutionary concept was an important influence in the development of the pictorial poster.
He went on to organise the celebrated commissioning of poster designs from members of the Royal Academy for the London Midland and Scottish Railway company in the 1920s. Wilkinson believed that art should play an important part in advertising. His posters were well-planned and executed in broad tones of colour with a skilful use of black to strengthen the design. He was, in his words, “the father and mother of the artistic poster on English railway stations”
Rhuddlan Castle is a castle located in Rhuddlan, Denbighshire, Wales. It was erected by Edward I in 1277 following the First Welsh War. A popular tourist destination, it was ideal to use as a lure for people to travel to for their holidays.
Wilkinson brings into the painting simplicity of the forms and the use of regular shapes, which clearly defined by light recalls paintings by the Renaissance artists. Using broad areas of colour the work depicts an overall pictorial coherence and makes sense in terms of paint of the light and movement in the landscape. The public were amazed on seeing these new works as Wilkinson was breaking new ground in his style of painting.
The light breaks across the field in front of the castle, almost highlighting its importance in the landscape. Brilliantly atmospheric, the large clouds and reflections in the water set up a tension between the illusion of space and depth. Adding the cattle to the painting helps to give a sense of scale to the landscape and dashes of colour.
Details

Darnley Fine Art

Henry Pether Outside the Doge’s Palace, Venice – POA

Charles Pears Clipper at Sea Oil on Canvas – POA

J. A. Harington Bird The Drinking Well Oil on Canvas – POA

Bryan De Grineau The Land Speed Record Gouache, signed, dated 1927

Norman Wilkinson CBE PRI Rhuddlan Castle Oil on Canvas – POA

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