THE COLLECTION IV by Jonathan Cooper

THE COLLECTION IV

Since its foundation in 1988, the gallery has followed two closely connected paths. It began with the careful acquisition and presentation of works from the secondary market, guided above all by judgement and an eye for quality. In later years, this activity grew to include the representation of living artists, whose work now forms an important part of the gallery’s identity.

This exhibition returns, in part, to those earlier origins. Over the past two years, Jonathan has assembled a group of works chosen not to illustrate a theme or period, but simply because they are good: works of character, conviction, and presence.

Although the gallery has never been defined by a single style, a sustained interest in the natural world runs throughout this collection. It appears in different forms – landscape, still life, animal painting, botanical study, and the representation of the human figure – and reflects, in part, Jonathan’s instinct for works grounded in direct experience of nature.

This attention to the natural world emerges in paintings that describe particular places, conditions of light, and living forms. Landscapes by Lamorna Birch, John Vicat Cole, Terrick Williams, and Anna Sweeten evoke coastal brightness, the quiet of the Yorkshire Dales, reflections along the Seine, or the stillness of winter in Maine. Sculpture and animal painting turn instead to the presence of the body itself. Works by Břetislav Benda and David Wynne address the human figure in sculptural terms, while paintings by William Huggins, Jay Kirkman, James Lynch, and Gary Stinton continue a long tradition of studying animals directly, with close attention to anatomy, movement, and temperament rather than narrative setting.

Across the exhibition, these subjects are treated through different pictorial languages. The nude in Anthony Devas’s painting is shaped through subtle shifts of tone and light, while landscape ranges from the muted atmosphere of Walter Richard Sickert to more descriptive views of place. Still life and botanical painting introduce a more concentrated scale of attention. The highly resolved studies by Brigid Edwards, Kate Nessler, and Paul Osborne Jones continue the tradition of recording plants with both scientific precision and artistic sensitivity, and the still life by Diarmuid Kelley shows how a single natural form can become the focus of sustained looking. Together, these works demonstrate varied ways of making an image, from tonal suggestion to exact description and careful finish.

Jonathan’s choices reflect many years of looking, an instinct for works that remain compelling beyond fashion or period. The result is a collection both eclectic and coherent, shaped by experience, patience, and confidence in artistic quality.

Melissa Tahar, 2026

ANTHONY DEVAS ARA RP (English 1911-1958)

Portrait of a Woman Standing, Three Quarter Length

Signed Devas lower left, and inscribed Model Rosselli

Studio Markham Sq on the canvas overlap

Oil on canvas

29.53 × 19.69 ins | 75 × 50 cm

Provenance Agnew’s, London

Anthony Devas was a British painter best known for his accomplished portraits and figure studies. Born in Bromley, Kent, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he was associated with artists linked to the Euston Road School and developed a lifelong commitment to representational painting. Devas established a successful career as a portraitist, exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy and holding solo exhibitions at leading London galleries. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1945 and an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1953. His work is represented in major public collections, including Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Imperial War Museum.

This painting presents a standing female nude in three-quarter length, rendered with characteristic sensitivity and restraint. The figure is set against a softly modulated background, where warm, earthy tones shape the body and soften the surrounding space. Devas ‘handling of paint is gentle yet assured, modelling the figure through subtle shifts of light and colour rather than sharp delineation. The background is articulated through loosely patterned passages that remain deliberately indeterminate, keeping the viewer’s attention on the painted surface rather than creating a fully illusionistic setting.

BRETISTAV BENDA (Czech 1897-1983)

Sculpture of a Nude, circa 1920

Signed B.Benda reverse of the base Bronze

12.6 × 4.33 × 2.56 ins | 32 × 11 × 6.5 cm

Břetislav Benda was a Czech sculptor associated with the figurative traditions of early twentieth-century Central European art. Born in Bohemia, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under Josef Václav Myslbek and Jan Štursa, whose emphasis on classical form and proportion had a lasting influence on his work. From 1923, Benda was a member of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts and developed a career that encompassed both independent sculpture and major architectural commissions. While he produced public monuments and reliefs, his practice is particularly noted for its sustained focus on the female figure.

This small bronze nude reflects Benda’s enduring engagement with the standing female form. Modest in scale and restrained in gesture, the figure is conceived with an emphasis on proportion, balance, and overall silhouette rather than surface detail. The smooth modelling and simplified transitions give the sculpture a quiet solidity, encouraging close viewing and underscoring Benda’s interest in clarity of form and compositional economy.

SAMUEL JOHN LAMORNA BIRCH RA, RWS, RWA

(English 1869-1955)

Away to the West

Signed S J Lamorna Birch lower left

Oil on canvas

19.29 × 23.23 ins | 49 × 59 cm

Provenance

David Messum

Samuel John Lamorna Birch was an English painter renowned for his evocative landscapes and coastal scenes in oils and watercolours. Closely associated with Cornwall and the artistic circles of Newlyn and Lamorna, he developed a distinctive style attentive to light, atmosphere, and the rhythms of nature. Elected a Royal Academician in 1934, he exhibited widely during his lifetime and became celebrated for his sensitive depictions of the Cornish landscape.

This coastal painting captures a luminous seascape animated by light, atmosphere, and subtle movement. Small sardine boats drift across the water beneath an expansive sky, while his wife and children gathered on rocky cliffs in the foreground introduce a quiet human presence within the wider natural scene. The work reflects the artist’s characteristic sensitivity to changing light and colour, with loose, expressive brushwork conveying both freshness and immediacy.

JOHN VICAT COLE (English 1903-1975)

In the Dale of the Nidd circa 1920

Signed John Cole lower right

Oil on canvas

23 × 29.5 ins | 58.42 × 74.93 cm

Provenance Private Collection

John Vicat Cole belonged to a distinguished family of British painters. Born in London, he was the son of the landscape artist Rex Vicat Cole and the great-grandson of George Vicat Cole, painter of naturalistic English scenery. Although John Cole would later become celebrated for his intimate views of London’s old shop fronts, his artistic foundations were firmly rooted in landscape, a tradition passed down through generations of his family.

Despite his London upbringing, Cole’s connection to Yorkshire was profound. His mother grew up at New Hall Farm, Bolton Abbey, where he spent long periods painting during the 1920s and 30s. These stays led him to explore the Yorkshire Dales extensively, and he developed a particular affection for the dramatic scenery of Nidderdale, a protected Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty known for its sweeping moorlands, wooded valleys, and historic landmarks.

In the Dale of the Nidd reflects this early and enduring engagement with the northern landscape. The work likely corresponds to the painting he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1929 under a similar title, underscoring how central the Dales were in shaping his early artistic identity.

Throughout his career, Cole exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the Paris Salon, where he received both silver and gold medals. Though he later gained recognition for urban subjects, works such as In the Dale of the Nidd reveal the depth of his landscape heritage and his ability to evoke place with affection and quiet observation.

BRIGID EDWARDS (English b.1940)

Mrs. Kaufmann’s Tulip 1996

Watercolour over pencil on vellum

20 × 14 ins | 50.8 × 35.6 cm

Provenance

Thomas Gibson Fine Art London

Beadleston Gallery New York

The Estate of the late David Cornwell best known as the author John le Carré

Brigid Edwards is a British botanical artist known for her highly refined works in pencil and watercolour on vellum. Born in London, she trained in Illustration and Graphic Design at the Central School of Art before working in television as a producer and director. Over the past three decades she has devoted herself to botanical art, drawing inspiration from historical masters such as Franz and Ferdinand Bauer and Georg Ehret. Her work is held in significant collections including the Hunt Institute and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as well as numerous private collections, including The Shirley Sherwood Collection at Kew.

This painting presents a single tulip isolated against a plain background, allowing full attention to rest on the structure, colour, and character of the flower. Executed with great delicacy and precision, the work demonstrates close observation and technical control, particularly in the subtle modelling of the petals and the nuanced tonal shifts in the leaves and stem. The composition conveys both clarity and quiet intensity, celebrating the natural elegance of the plant while reflecting the traditions of classical botanical illustration.

EDWARD JOHN GREGORY RA, PPRBSA

(English 1850-1909)

Boulter’s Lock, Sunday Afternoon

Watercolour

11 × 15.35 ins | 28 × 39 cm

Edward John Gregory was a British painter and watercolourist associated with late Victorian genre and figure painting. Born in Southampton, he studied at the South Kensington Art School and briefly at the Royal Academy Schools, and later became President of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and was awarded medals at several international exhibitions. Gregory is best known for his large oil painting

Boulter’s Lock, Sunday Afternoon, completed after many years of work and now in Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. Though he also produced numerous watercolours and related compositions exploring similar themes of leisure, social observation, and modern life.

This watercolour depicts a lively riverside scene at a lock on the Thames, animated by figures in boats and on the banks, with carefully observed detail and a strong sense of narrative. The composition conveys the atmosphere of a popular Sunday outing, balancing the bustle of activity with the gentler rhythms of water, light, and foliage. Painted with delicacy and control, the work demonstrates Gregory’s skill as a watercolourist and his interest in contemporary leisure.

DIARMUID KELLEY (English b.1972)

Justus Van Meestraeten

(You Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine) 2009

Oil on canvas

11.81 × 11.81 ins | 30 × 30 cm

Provenance

Offer Waterman & Co., London

Diarmuid Kelley is a British painter renowned for his accomplished portraits and still lifes. Born in Stirling and raised in the north of England, he studied Fine Art at Newcastle University before completing a Master’s degree at Chelsea College of Art. At just twenty-three, he became the youngest-ever recipient of the NatWest Art Prize. Kelley works from his London studio, where his practice is defined by rigorous observation and a highly controlled use of light, informed by the traditions of European painting. His work is held in major public and private collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, Chatsworth House, and notable private collections such as those of Steven Spielberg and Lord Allen of Kensington.

This still life exemplifies Kelley’s quiet intensity and acute sensitivity to light. A single flower, held within a transparent glass, is rendered with restrained precision, allowing surface, reflection, and atmosphere to carry the emotional weight of the image. Through this pared-back composition, Kelley transforms an ephemeral subject into a moment of concentrated stillness, where observation, memory, and time seem delicately suspended.

WILLIAM HUGGINS (English 1820-1884)

Lions at Rest 1872

Signed and dated 1872 lower right Coloured chalks and wash on buff paper

11 × 21 in | 27.9 × 53.3 cm

Provenance

Richard Green, London (label on reverse)

William Huggins was an English animal painter and draughtsman born in Liverpool, where he received his early training at the Liverpool Mechanics’ Institution before becoming closely associated with the Liverpool Academy of Arts. From an early age, he distinguished himself through his ability to draw from life, winning prizes as a teenager and exhibiting at the Royal Academy from the early 1840s until 1875. Although he briefly withdrew from the Liverpool Academy during institutional disputes in the 1850s, his reputation as a specialist in animal subjects continued to grow.

Huggins devoted his career almost exclusively to the study of animals: horses, cattle, poultry, and, most notably, exotic species such as lions and tigers. Lacking access to animals in their natural habitats, he relied on sustained observation at the Liverpool Zoological Gardens and at Wombwell’s Travelling Menagerie, where he made careful studies directly from life. His work was frequently compared to that of George Stubbs, whose influence Huggins openly acknowledged, particularly in the anatomical precision and calm authority of his animal forms.

Lions at Rest exemplifies Huggins’s mature approach to the subject. The composition focuses on the physical presence and quiet interaction of the animals rather than narrative or dramatic effect. Executed in coloured chalks and wash, the drawing demonstrates his acute understanding of feline anatomy, texture, and weight, while the restrained setting reflects his characteristic avoidance of elaborate backgrounds. The motif of resting lions recurs throughout Huggins’s oeuvre, underscoring his sustained fascination with the dignity, strength, and repose of exotic animals observed at close range.

PAUL OSBORNE JONES OBE (Australian 1921-1997)

Study of Snowdrops

Signed Paul Jones lower right

Gouache

14.17 × 10.63 ins | 36 × 27 cm

Paul Osborne Jones was an Australian painter renowned for his highly accomplished botanical studies. Born in Bondi, Sydney, he trained at the East Sydney Technical College and the Julian Ashton Art School before working briefly as a commercial artist. His artistic career was interrupted by military service during the Second World War, including time spent in New Guinea, an experience that later informed his sensitivity to plant form and structure.

Jones’s professional breakthrough came when a floral still life he exhibited with the Society of Artists attracted the attention of Professor E. G. Waterhouse, a leading authority on camellias. Invited to illustrate Waterhouse’s publications, Jones established a distinguished reputation as a botanical artist, celebrated for his precision, clarity, and trompel’œil refinement. He specialised particularly in camellias and magnolias, subjects that became central to his mature work.

His achievements were formally recognised in 1971 with the award of an OBE, the same year his landmark publication Flora Superba appeared, followed by Flora Magnifica in 1976. His work is represented in major Australian public collections, including state galleries in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne and in England the Shirley Sherwood Collection at Kew.

PAUL OSBORNE JONES OBE (Australian 1921-1997)

Study of a Magnolia

Signed Paul Jones lower right

Painting on paper

27.56 × 20.08 ins | 70 × 51 cm

Provenance

Private Collection

JAY KIRKMAN (American & British b.1958)

Portrait of a Horse

Signed Kirkman lower left

Pastel

19.29 × 14.17 ins | 49 × 36 cm

Jay Kirkman is an American and British equestrian artist recognised for his psychologically attentive portrayals of horses. Born in Los Angeles in 1958, he moved with his family to England in 1973 and has remained resident since. He studied at the West Surrey College of Art and the Camberwell School of Art, completing his degree in 1979. From the early 1980s, Kirkman committed himself almost exclusively to the equestrian genre, finding in it a subject that allowed both formal experimentation and sustained observation of character and mood.

Working primarily in oil and chalk or pastel, Kirkman’s art ranges from scenes rooted in the tradition of British sporting painting to more introspective studies focusing on the horse in isolation. His approach draws upon the historical depiction of the relationship between horse and rider, with acknowledged affinities to Degas and Géricault, while remaining firmly grounded in the lineage of British equestrian art associated with Stubbs and Munnings. His works are particularly noted for their sensitivity to anatomy, movement, and psychological presence.

Kirkman has exhibited regularly in Britain and Ireland since the early 1980s and was represented by Jonathan Cooper from 1991 to 1999. His work is held in important private collections in the UK and internationally, including those of the Duke of Roxburghe, Lady Juliet Tadgell, and Bamford Collection. In recent years, much of his later practice has focused on commissioned works for private patrons.

JAMES LYNCH (English b.1956)

The Bull 1989

Signed and dated J Lynch 89 lower right

Watercolour

17.13 × 25.59 ins | 43.5 × 65 cm

James Lynch is a British painter celebrated for his depictions of the English landscape, skies, and farm animals, works that combine close observation with a quiet sense of the visionary. Born in Wiltshire and now living and working in Somerset, he is largely self-taught and has developed a highly distinctive practice rooted in traditional methods.

Lynch’s art is deeply informed by the rural landscape of southern England and by his lifelong fascination with weather and light. A keen paraglider, he often approaches the countryside from unusual viewpoints, exploring the relationship between land and sky and the subtle traces of human presence within the landscape.

His paintings are held in major public collections, including the National Trust at Kingston Lacy, Wimpole Hall, and Chartwell. Awards include the Elizabeth Greenshields bursary (1983), the Royal Academy Award for Watercolour (1986), and the Spectator Art Award (1993).

The Bull reflects James Lynch’s calm and direct approach to animal subjects. Set in a gently rolling rural landscape, the bull is presented as a solid, self-contained presence, painted with close attention to form and proportion. Rather than telling a story, the image focuses on the quiet strength and physical reality of the animal. The soft colours and open countryside create a sense of stillness, linking the figure to the enduring rhythms of the English landscape.

KATE NESSLER (American b.1950)

Brassia Verrucosa X Brassia Caudata, 1995

Dated and signed ‘95 Nessler lower right

Watercolour

19.29 × 18.9 ins | 49 × 48 cm

Provenance

Private Collection

Kate Nessler is an American botanical artist based in Arkansas, internationally recognised for her accomplished watercolours on vellum and paper. Trained at the Kendall School of Design in Michigan, Nessler has received numerous awards, including three Gold Medals from the Royal Horticultural Society and the Award of Excellence from the American Society of Botanical Artists. Her work is represented in major international collections, among them the Highgrove Florilegium, the Shirley Sherwood Collection at Kew, the Royal Horticultural Society, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh.

The two orchid studies presented here demonstrate the precision of Nessler’s botanical practice. In Brassia Verrucosa × Brassia caudata, the artist renders the plant in its entirety, granting equal attention to flower, foliage, and root system. The sweeping arc of the stem and the delicately articulated blossoms are balanced by the dense, grounded structure below, emphasising the orchid’s physical complexity and vitality. Nessler’s works reveal her ability to balance scientific clarity with a quiet poetic sensibility, presenting plants not as static specimens but as living forms shaped by growth, fragility, and time.

KATE NESSLER (American b.1950)

Phalaenopsis Equestris, 1995

Watercolour on paper

12.5 × 13.25 ins | 31.8 × 33.7cm

WALTER RICHARD SICKERT (English 1860-1942)

L’Eglise du Pollet, Dieppe, circa 1904-1907

Signed Rd.St. lower left Oil on board

5.5 × 9.25 ins | 14 × 23.5 cm

Provenance

Mrs Maud Morgan by whom given to the Collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Literature

Wendy Baron, The Camden Town Group, 1979, reproduced p.372 Sickert Paintings and Drawings, by Wendy Baron, by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2006, p.239, ill.129.2

Walter Richard Sickert was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern British painting. Born in Munich and raised in England, he trained under Whistler and worked closely with Degas, absorbing from both a taste for unconventional viewpoints, muted tonal harmonies and the observational intensity that would define his mature style. A founding member of the Camden Town Group, Sickert moved restlessly between London, Dieppe and Venice, developing a body of work that explored the poetics of everyday life through streets, interiors and cityscapes rendered with atmospheric subtlety.

Between 1898 and 1905, Sickert produced an important series of landscapes in northern France. Seeking a decisive shift away from the London portraiture that had come to dominate his practice, he left England in the winter of 1898 and settled in Dieppe, where he remained until 1905. Although he continued to paint figures, it was the landscape and architecture of Dieppe that gradually became central to his work of this period

This small, freely handled landscape corresponds closely to Sickert’s Dieppe years and to the series of views he painted from the elevated vantage points overlooking Le Pollet, the fishermen’s quarter of the town. The loosely brushed forms, the subdued tonalities, and the broad, fragmentary application of paint all signal Sickert’s interest in capturing the atmospheric presence of the place rather than its literal description. The tall church tower dominating the composition can be identified as Notre-Dame des Grèves, a recurring motif in his Dieppe paintings. Sickert often depicted the church from the rear, silhouetted against the distant townscape.

Sickert’s Dieppe paintings form an invaluable visual record of the town before the First World War, and this work shares many characteristics with the views now preserved in public collections. A closely related composition is held at the Courtauld Institute in London, confirming the significance of this motif within Sickert’s French landscape oeuvre.

GARY STINTON (English b.1961)

VWH (Veil of the White Horse) Fox Hounds

Signed G. D. Stinton lower right Pastel on museum board

28 × 14 ins | 71.1 × 35.6 cm

Gary Stinton is a British artist recognised for his striking and lifelike pastel portraits of animals, particularly big cats and hounds. Based in Herefordshire, he has been represented for many years by the Jonathan Cooper in London, where his work is regularly exhibited. Stinton works predominantly in pastel on museum board, a medium that allows him to capture surface texture, expressive detail and the presence of his subjects with remarkable clarity. His paintings range from intimate head studies to larger compositions that convey the physicality and character of each animal with careful observation and technical finesse. His work is held in private collections internationally and is featured in the permanent collection of the Museum of Hounds and Hunting in Virginia, USA.

VWH (Veil of the White Horse) Fox Hounds exemplifies Stinton’s ability to portray dogs with compositional elegance and sensitive attention to individual expression. The group of hounds is arranged with a naturalistic sense of interaction and rhythm, while the soft pastel technique emphasises the texture of their coats and the subtle interplay of light and shadow. Rather than focusing on narrative, the painting invites close attention to the personalities of the animals and the quiet intensity of their collective presence.

ANNA SWEETEN (English b.1947)

In That Cold Light, 1999

Signed and dated Tempera on Masonite 18 × 33 ins | 45.7 × 83.8 cm

Provenance

Private Collection, USA

Anna Sweeten is a British realist painter whose practice encompasses landscape and still life, working primarily in egg tempera alongside oils, acrylics, and watercolour. Born in England, Sweeten has long drawn inspiration from sparsely populated environments, from the flatlands of East Anglia to the rural landscapes of North America, particularly New England and the Midwest. Working slowly and methodically in her studio from studies made on site, she is known for her clarity of composition, restrained palette, and disciplined technique, often completing only a small number of paintings each year.

In That Cold Light captures the quiet intensity of a New England landscape, where white clapboard houses sit within a winter-bound terrain beneath a muted, overcast sky. Sweeten distils the scene to its essential forms, eliminating excess detail in order to preserve the atmosphere that first arrested her attention. The careful layering of tempera and the cool tonal range create a sense of stillness and latent human presence, suggesting lives lived just beyond the frame. The painting becomes not a literal record of place, but a concentrated meditation on solitude, memory, and the enduring character of the landscape.

TERRICK JOHN WILLIAMS RA RI ROI

(English 1860-1936)

Evening on the Seine, Paris, circa 1980

Signed Terrick Williams lower right

Watercolour

8.86 × 11.42 ins | 22.5 × 29 cm

Provenance

Jonathan Grant Galleries, Auckland, New Zealand

Exhibited

Whitford & Hughes, London, in November 1984

Royal Institute in Watercolour (according to label verso); Illustrated in The Art and Life of Terrick Williams (London, 1984), plate 68.

Terrick John Williams was one of the most admired British painters of light and atmosphere in the early twentieth century. Born in Liverpool and trained in Antwerp and Paris, he later divided his life between London and St Ives, developing a reputation for luminous landscapes, harbour scenes, and river views painted in oil, pastel, and watercolour. His refined handling of tonal harmonies and his sensitivity to transient effects of light reveal both an Impressionist influence and the disciplined realism of his early academic training.

Although Williams first lived in Paris during his student years, he continued to return to Parisian subjects throughout his career. The Seine, in particular, offered him the shifting colours, reflections and atmospheric conditions that became central to his mature style. In Evening on the Seine, Paris, he captures the river at dusk, the façades of seventeenth-century buildings dissolving gently into evening light and mirrored in the water below.

Williams exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1891, was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1924 and became a Royal Academician in 1933.

DAVID WYNNE (English 1926-2014)

Christ on the Ass, circa 1954

Bronze with a dark brown patina

10 × 8.27 × 3.74 ins | 25.4 × 21 × 9.5 cm

David Wynne was a British sculptor best known for his figurative and animal sculpture and for his many significant public commissions in Britain and abroad. Born in London, he studied at the Camberwell School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. Emerging in the early post-war period, Wynne developed a sculptural language rooted in close observation, sensitivity to movement, and a restrained, humanistic approach to form.

Religious and symbolic subjects formed an important part of his early work, alongside studies of animals and the human figure. His sculptures are held in numerous public collections and are widely documented through the Public Sculpture of Britain project.

Christ on the Ass dates from around 1954 and belongs to Wynne’s early engagement with religious subjects. The sculpture presents Christ at the moment of entry into Jerusalem, but stripped of narrative detail or theatrical gesture. Christ and the animal are closely integrated into a compact composition, reinforcing a sense of stillness and reflection. The dark brown patina reinforces this introspective quality, lending the sculpture a subdued and meditative presence.

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