Alfred de Bréanski Sr. Oil Painting, ca. 1870
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APPRAISER:
Are you able to tell me who the artist is of this painting?
GUEST:
De Bronsky.
APPRAISER:
Not quite.
GUEST:
Not quite?
APPRAISER:
Alfred de Brèanski.
GUEST:
De Brèanski.
APRAISER: De Brèanski. You've got a good Scottish "r" there, as well. Can you tell me a little bit about how you came by it?
GUEST:
Well, the painting belonged to my mother. She and her four sisters each had a piece of this man's work that my grandfather gave them when they were very young. And when she passed a few years ago, this one came into my possession.
APPRAISER:
Right. Do you watch Antiques Roadshow?
GUEST:
I do.
APPRAISER:
I did a little piece about an artist called Alfred de Brèanski, Jr.
GUEST:
And this is Senior?
APPRAISER:
And this is Senior. And the gist of that was that Alfred de Brèanski, Jr.'s work has started to come up in the market, but the one that you really want is his father, Alfred de Brèanski, Sr., which is this chap.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And although he painted a lot in Scotland and Wales, and also in the north of England, in the Lake District, he was actually from London, and his parents were of Polish extraction. So he was born in London, Greenwich in London, about 1852, but really is known for doing these kind of landscapes. And he was very, very popular-- one of the leading Victorian landscape painters. Terrific facility with painting light and weather conditions. And of course, I believe you're... where are you from?
GUEST:
Edinburgh.
APPRAISER:
You're from Edinburgh. Like me, you're from Edinburgh. So, like me, you know that the weather in Scotland can vary from one moment to another. And here we see it with the light trying to get through. Obviously a lot of dark clouds, probably been raining. A fisherman here, braving the elements. And it's a wonderful, wonderful, typical Highland view that de Brèanski would do. And rather poignantly, when I looked in the back, where the title is, it's in the Pass of Glencoe. And obviously to Scots, or at least to the MacDonald clan, Glencoe has some rather horrible connotations. It was the scene of the massacre there in 1692 where the Campbells did them in, basically.
GUEST:
Yep.
APPRAISER:
But I'm pleased to see it in rather happier circumstances here. An oil on canvas like this, in this style, I would imagine probably dates from the latter half of the 19th century. So we're talking about maybe 1860s, 1870s, right about then. The frame is likely to be original to the piece, although it seems a little loose-fitting at the moment. This has condition issues.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And we can see flecks of paint missing here and here. But something like this, which is going to clean up beautifully, and is a good subject, I would think certainly at auction $15,000 to $25,000.
GUEST:
That's nice. Take that anytime.
APPRAISER:
I will, too. Good.
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