Oil Portrait of Lady Shaw by Robert Edward Morrison 19th Century Antique Full Length Paintings

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE THIS MAGNIFICENT PORTRAIT BY ROBERT EDWARD MORRISON R.C.A. ( b.1852 - d.1925 ) OF LADY SHAW / Grandmother of children Joyce & Monica Shaw [Born. Peel Isle of Man / Died in Liverpool] A very large - almost life size - original oil on canvas signed and dated by the artist who was one of the most sought after English Pre-Raphaelite painters renowned for portraiture. BIOGRAPHY: Robert Edward Morrison was the son of John Morrison, a joiner and later manager of one of the Peel timber yards. He moved to Liverpool in 1870 where he trained as a house painter and served part of his apprenticeship with William Nicholson of Douglas, father of the Manx artist, John Miller Nicholson. Aged. 21 he became a student at the Liverpool School of Art, and studied under John Finnie. He later studied in Paris at the Académie Julian under Bouguereau and Tony Fleury. The artist started exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1884. He also exhibited extensively at the Liverpool Academy, acting as its President from 1895 to 1905. He was an active member of the Liverpool Manx society and was its President from 1911. ART: Morrison was given his first art lessons by John Miller Nicholson, the leading Manx artist who was to become a life-long friend and whose portrait he painted in later life. In the 1881 census Morrison described himself as an ‘artist in crayon’. A decade later he was calling himself a ‘portrait painter’. Morrison painted many of the dignitaries of Liverpool, Lancashire and the Isle of Man, including the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and the Manx novelist Hall Caine. On his return visits to the Isle of Man he often painted landscapes though it is as a sympathetic portrait painter he will be remembered, producing sensitive and pleasing portraits of his sitters that at the time ensured his popularity and success. In original carved swept giltwood frame and with provenance from a London estate where it has been since the 1980s, this is a beautiful full length portrait of Lady Shaw wearing a silk grey-blue dress, her white silk gloves in one hand and in the other the fine black feather boa. The portrait superbly observed, painted with great empathy and lightness of touch. The background of the stone bridge over a river flanked by trees and roses in full bloom is a homage to nature. Here Morrison has used a wonderful pallet of colours and her ring, lace blouse and necklaces are superbly painted. Her expression so realistically captured that her eyes engage yours and she almost speaks to you. Pre-Raphaelite Era paintings have become extremely desirable, achieving record prices at Christies , Sotheby’s & Bonham''s London. RECORDED SALES : A small oil painting measuring 12 x 16 inches sold for a huge sum of £6,875 at Christies ion 8th July 2015. Large portrait of Joyce and Monica Shaw dated 1905 which sold on 25th April 2012 for $16,250 USD / £13,500 at today’s exchange rate as of 16th March 2023. PROVENANCE London private collector who had owned it since the early 1980s. CONDITION: Canvas & Frame excellent. DELIVERY: UK £150 By Private Courier ( 2 Man Job ) Worldwide : EU £800 / USA £950 ( Large Item Requires Crating ) TELEPHONE ENQUIRIES : 07765 856171 CLC/062/RBC