A newly discovered painting by Henry La Thangue is up for auction

The newly discovered painting “Bracken”, by Henry La Thangue, is an important piece for the progress of British art history. Once exhibited at the Royal Academy in London – it has spent 90 years as a treasured heirloom within a private art collection in Sweden – and is now up for sale in the auction Fine Art & Antiques at Stockholms Auktionsverk on June 14–15.

The Croydon-born artist Henry La Thangue (1859–1929), was an English realist rural landscape painter traditionally associated with the Newlyn School.

– In his time La Thangue was a key figure in the English art scene. And “Bracken” was part of his renowned harvesting suite, related works from that suite are displayed in high-profile museums like National Gallery and Tate. But the last time “Bracken” was shown to the public was in 1933, when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy, says Cecilia Berggren, Classic Art specialist at Stockholms Auktionsverk.

– During the second world war, the British people were put in a financially compromised position. And during that time, a lot of high-quality art by British artists was shipped across the North Sea to be sold by art dealers in Gothenburg and Stockholm.

To help research and catalogue “Bracken”, Stockholms Auktionsverk has had the great help of Kenneth McConkey – author and professor of Art History at the University of Northumbria.

In January 1898 Henry Herbert La Thangue was elected Associate of the Royal Academy and expectations for his new work at the forthcoming summer exhibition were high. It was just over a decade since he had led the reform movement that sought to establish a rival society to challenge the Academy’s dominance in British Art. Others of his generation, equally vociferous, had already joined its ranks, and although he was a controversial appointment, a gradual process of change was underway. La Thangue’s work, like that of contemporaries who were also trained in the French ateliers, appealed to a new kind of clientele, made up of wealthy entrepreneurs and manufacturers from the north of England, one of whom was Sir

William Edward Aykroyd (1865-1947), chairman of a successful wool and carpet business and managing director of the Bradford Dyers’ Association. He and others in west Yorkshire grasped La Thangue’s importance and having already acquired "By the Duckpond" in 1894 he added "Bracken" to his distinguished modern British and French art collection. Their taste was confirmed not only by the Academy’s announcement but also by the fact that eighteen months previously his "The Man with the Scythe" (Tate) had been purchased for what was then the National Gallery of British Art. The work was hailed for its combination of ‘symbolic purpose and realistic truth’. This simply meant that the artist’s everyday rural subjects, treated realistically, also conveyed a more universal message.

In his first exhibition as Associate (ARA), La Thangue showed five of his strongest recent works. Two depicted men and women at work, two were evening scenes, and the fifth, the recently rediscovered "Bracken", combines elements of both. It places the viewer in a ‘grassy lane’ with two figures, ‘carrying on their backs great masses of tawny bracken’. Of the five, the largest, "Harvesters at Supper", and the present canvas were the most frequently cited in contemporary reviews that ranged from mild approval to the ecstatic. Some concentrated upon the ensemble ‘positively vibrating with light and air’ to the extent that it ‘dazzles your eyes as you look at it’, while others commented upon the figures, noting the ‘sweet face’ of the old woman that ‘shows no bitterness’ but ‘dignity the result of fortitude rather than resignation’. Implied in these comments were references to the present moment of the picture – its low early winter sun, when the woodlands would be ritually stripped of ferns to act as soft bedding for cattle. This was coupled with the larger contrast of youth and age, conveying the sense that generations of country folk had carried on this practice. A year later, the painter would return to the theme in "Cutting Bracken", this time pairing his young country woman with an aged male companion. If one worked in the studio, this overall harmony basis would likely be lost. Painting "Bracken", one relied on prevailing atmospherics which brought golden light to the golden age of his subject. Time, durée, long and short, was his real preoccupation.

“Bracken” by Henry Herbert La Thangue RA
Oil on canvas, 125,7 x 104,1 cm
Signed lower left, HH La Thangue

Provenance
Sir William Aykroyd Bt, by descent; Private Collection, Sweden after 1947

Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1898, Summer Exhibition, no. 123 as Bracken
London, Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, Commemorative Exhibition of Works by Late Members, 1933, no. 202 (lent by Sir William Aykroyd Bt as Gathering Bracken)

The auction Fine Art & Antiques will be held on June 14–15 at Nybrogatan 32 in Stockholm, and is now published online.