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v.wells
21-05-2010, 5:04 PM
In a Will I received this week, it mentions the bequest of a picture entitled "Soft Persuasion" together with the frame of Bird's Eye Maple and the picture of "Gladstone". These were owned by William Henry Stuart, North Southsea. I have no idea as to artist/photographer's name and the Will is dated 1917.

I have tried google images but too many wierd things turned up so was wondering if there was a better way of searching to see if these items still exist and what they actually were ie; either oil paintings or framed photographs.

Does anyone have ideas?

MarkJ
21-05-2010, 5:13 PM
Soft Persuasion seems to be a painting by Arthur J Elsey. I suspect this would have been a copy, probably like the one on the website below (its some commercial thing, so stick www. in front!)

worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-arthur-j-elsley-framed-print-home

ET in the USA
21-05-2010, 5:42 PM
I agree it probably wasn't the original - per this website [ Google "Arthur Elsley" + soft persuasion & click on the link website starting with cainineart], the original oil painting was done in 1896 & hung in the "Royal Academy" London the same year.

To see the original catalogue for this exhibition google original + "soft persuasion"+ "arthur j. elsley" & click on Exhibition at the Royal Academy Google books result.

v.wells
21-05-2010, 5:46 PM
Thank you Mark! :) I saw it in images and will now go back and see if I can capture it as a .jpg. It's not in the same frame but that is what one would expect after all these years. The "Gladstone" must be of the British PM William Ewart Gladstone. A strange combination to pass down to someone, but then he bequested some strange things for that era. He wasn't poor by any means.

And thanks ET :) am off to look now.

ET in the USA
21-05-2010, 5:56 PM
Vanessa - here is a random quote I found from 2001 "I have a painting by Arthur John Elsley and the only information that I have on it is a date that is written on the front of it in the bottom right hand corner. The date is 1910, it is a portrait of two little girls sitting on a chair with a puppy jumping/reaching for their laps. I don't know what the name of the portrait is or anything about it I got it at a garage sale and was curious about it's origins. Anything that you can find out about it would be greatly appreciated. "

Maybe a well to do person could have bought the original. He seems to have been a prolific painter. Have not found yet what an original sold for then or today.
ET

v.wells
21-05-2010, 6:47 PM
That print was £85 which isn't much but not something I would buy. I don't know how much an original would cost either (too much for me). I just wanted to know what the pictures were and I did send a .jpg of the Elsley painting to my 4th cousin in NZ. I told him he could find plenty of Gladstone if he wanted to see who he was. Apparently these were the only 2 pictures of value worth passing down. He had most of his savings in Banks and Post Office accounts.

geneius
21-05-2010, 7:59 PM
Unlikely to have painted Gladsstone who died in 1898 when Elsey was 28...bibliography satets he specialised in victorian children and dogs......

v.wells
21-05-2010, 9:28 PM
I didn't say Elsley had painted Gladstone. Gladstone was the name of the picture and I have no idea as to who printed/painted it. If "Soft Persuasion" was a print, I would guess the Gladstone was a print as well and that is a common enough print to view via google. But thanks for the information re Gladstone and Elsley.

Waitabit
21-05-2010, 9:34 PM
Vanessa, did you Google at all? two paintings come up: Arthur J. Elsey & a painting in process by Jim Rabby in New Mexico.

I guess I didn't scroll down properly. sorry.

v.wells
21-05-2010, 11:18 PM
Wendy - I googled on the web first got the names and then googled on the images and found the Arthur J. Elsey and Rabby ones. At first I used picture in the keyword search and then painting , finding them. It looks like the one by Elsley is a lithographic oil painting but it's not in the original frame. I just was curious as to what the pictures were of. The Gladstone one threw up parks and places in OZ and I decided it had to have been a print of William Gladstone, the PM, whom William Stuart must have admired. Gladstone and the bull dog in the other painting have a strong resemblance :)

Waitabit
23-05-2010, 4:02 AM
'They' say that after a time people grow to look like their dogs! :)

Jane Elderfield
23-05-2010, 5:59 AM
... I don't know how much an original would cost either (too much for me)....

Vanessa--an original Elsley sold at Sotheby's a couple of years ago: "Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 242,500 USD".

Elsley was enormously popular in the time of the will you've received, and many copies were printed of his paintings. (I have two which originally belonged to an ancestress who emigrated from Britain to Canada in 1904. A bit too sugary for my taste.) The writer of the will was probably passing on a couple of prints which he particularly liked--or perhaps the person who inherited them had admired them.

--Jane E

v.wells
23-05-2010, 3:48 PM
I agree Jane. He wasn't wealthy but not poor either by the looks of some of the things he bequeathed. I am sure all the items had special meaning to him as well as being costly for him to originally purchase. :)

Jack Ruffin
26-12-2010, 1:05 AM
Hi V. Wells I'm researching ELSLEY and I came across the following. its all I have good luck!~ "7 Stuart St. Spitalfields 1769 Portrait of a Gentleman ; Half length "After A. J. Elsley" " I think it was in a site on The Royal Academy of Arts: a complete dictionary of" i think I googled "Elsley Spitalfields" which is in central London

In a Will I received this week, it mentions the bequest of a picture entitled "Soft Persuasion" together with the frame of Bird's Eye Maple and the picture of "Gladstone". These were owned by William Henry Stuart, North Southsea. I have no idea as to artist/photographer's name and the Will is dated 1917.

I have tried google images but too many wierd things turned up so was wondering if there was a better way of searching to see if these items still exist and what they actually were ie; either oil paintings or framed photographs.

Does anyone have ideas?