Walmer Castle by Moonlight

Henry Pether

Oil on canvas

1852
  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Bahrain
    City: Manama
    Place: British Embassy
  • About the artist
    Henry Pether was a painter of townscapes and landscapes. He was one of a family of painters who specialised in moonlit scenes and painted in a similar style. The most famous member of the family was Henry’s father, Abraham Pether (1756–1812). Pether exhibited seven paintings at the Royal Academy between 1828 and 1862. He also showed his work at the Royal Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street (1833-1834 and 1855) and at the British Institution (1865). During his career he moved several times, living at addresses in Southampton, Camden Town and south London, probably to escape his creditors. In 1837, The London Gazette reported that Pether was an inmate of a debtor’s prison and described his profession as ‘Surveyor, Artist, Engineer, and Architect’. Difficulty in making a sufficient income from painting alone may have led him to experiment with other occupations and entrepreneurial projects. In 1839 he and ‘Alfred Singer, of Vauxhall’ were granted a patent for ‘improvements in the preparation and combination of earthenware or porcelain for the purpose of mosaic’. Mr Singer went on to exhibit mosaic tiles at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and a review of the exhibition mentions Pether as one of those responsible for ‘re-introducing this very beautiful kind of decoration’. Pether continued his attempts to supplement his career as an artist with further patents for architectural materials in 1864 and 1867 and a patent for a lamp globe in 1876.
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  • Details
    Title
    Walmer Castle by Moonlight
    Date
    1852
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 60.00 cm, width: 120.50 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from the Jeremy Maas Gallery, July 1969
    Inscription
    sdbl; according to Maas Gallery records: inscribed, signed and dated '5 Nov 1852' on verso
    Provenance
    With Purnell, Daniell & Morell, Honiton, Cornwall; from whom purchased by J. S. Maas & Co. Ltd., London, on 21 March 1969; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in July 1969
    GAC number
    8532