Ralph Brownell McGrew was known for his landscapes of the Western States and portraits of Native Americans. Aged eight his family moved to Southern California and later, from 1936, attended Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. McGrew had a profound love for the deserts around city and began to make painting trips through the Southwest. He lived, for, 17 years in New Mexico and frequently travelled to and painted and the Hopi and Navajo reservations there. In ‘In Stilly Heights’ McGrew captures all the peaceful timelessness of the landscapes of the of the West.

Augustus John

Friedrich Wilhelm Schreiner

Fleur Cowles

Eardley Knollys

British School

P. Ibanez

Carlo Pollonera captures the lightness and air of the Dolomites so proficiently here that you can almost feel and taste the crispness of the clear, thin air. The bright lime green grass suggests the early days of spring, and all the freshness and purity that accompanies it. Pollonera is able to grasp the real qualities of this scene, while doing so with a directness and flair in his brushstrokes – an approach which influenced the following generation, most notably the famed painter Cesare Maggi.

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Pollonera was born in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father was a lawyer, before returning to Italy as a child. Having fought with Garibaldi in the Trentino campaign of 1866 aged 17, he later enrolled at the Accademia Albertina in Turin and studied under Enrico Gamba and Andrea Gastaldi. In 1875, he travelled with his close friend Carlo Stratta to Paris, to study under Thomas Couture and during this time became interested in and studied the work of the Barbizon school.

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Pollonera was not only a painter but also malacologist, which, of course, is someone who studies molluscs. While still young his mother remarried, to the prominent natural scientist and senator Michele Lessona, who had a great affect on him. He originally studied natural sciences, before switching to painting, but throughout his life remained fascinated by the subject, writing over 50 scientific articles on non-marine molluscs, frequently painting and drawing scientific sketches of them and their anatomy. He was revered by his contemporaries who even named several species of snail after him.

David Mead

It is unknown who this striking and powerful lady is but her strength of character is without question. Dressed elegantly she fixes her gaze with both artist and viewer, in a deeply captivating and arresting manner. Serneels showcases all of the usual flair and immediacy for which he became known and paints his subject with a directness that matches her expression.

Clement Serneels was born to a Spanish mother and a Flemish father in 1912. He attended the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium, where he was considered a top student. In 1936, he was awarded a government scholarship to spend a year painting in the former Belgian Congo. 

Off the back of the success of the exhibition following this trip, Serneels returned to Central Africa in 1938. When World War II broke out, the artist stayed on in Belgian Congo and made Africa his home until 1960.