Frank William Warwick Topham (1838-1924) - Capri Resting Fishermen Oil On Panel Circa 1863

Frank William Warwick Topham (1838-1924) - Capri Resting Fishermen oil on panel circa 1863

An air of freshness, a sumptuous light for this oil on panel by Frank William Warwick Topham, an excellent English painter, and watercolorist.
It was during his stay with his father around 1863 that this picture was conceived and painted. A beautiful composition that sublimates the life of Italian fishermen in the middle of the 19th century, and makes us dream of these landscapes bathed in light.

Charming painting of fishermen resting on a Capri beach signed lower left by Frank William Warwick Topham circa 1863.

Sizes unframed:   H 14.96 In. - W 18.11 In.
Sizes with frame:  H 21.25 In. - W 29.52 In.

In fine condition, our painting is served by a beautiful carved and gilded wooden frame. Our painting has just been professionally cleaned.

Biography:

Frank William Warwick Topham (1838-1924) is best known as a painter of charming genre scenes in oil and watercolor, especially those set in Italy. He also painted a number of portraits.

Frank William Warwick Topham was born at 32 Fortress Terrace, Kentish Town, the second of ten children of genre painter Francis William Topham and his wife Mary Anne (née Beckwith).
He studied art under his father from an early age, before entering the schools of the Royal Academy. He continued his training in Paris in the studio of the academic painter Charles Gleyre.

From 1860 onwards, Topham exhibited widely in London and the provinces, notably at the Royal Academy of Arts, the British Institution, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Grosvenor Gallery, and the New Gallery.

Topham enjoyed his father's company and went on sketching trips with him to Ireland in 1860 and to Rome and Capri in 1863. Developing a particular love for Italy, he returned there several times and made the people of Capri the main subject of his paintings. A documented trip is that of 1865 when he went to Ravenna with his fellow painters, E S Lundgren and Frank Dillon.

In 1870, Topham married Helen Lemon, in Horsham, Sussex. She was the daughter of her father's friend Mark Lemon, the first editor of Punch. They settled together at 58 Queen's Road, St John's Wood, but in 1877 they moved to Ifield, Prince Arthur Road, Hampstead. They had five daughters and three sons.

In 1879, Topham was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours. (Six years later, the Institute received its Royal Charter). Then, in 1883, he was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, only two years after its founding. (The institute would in turn receive its Royal Charter and become the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1909).

Around 1890, Topham and his family moved to Coneyhurst, a Tudor mansion in the village of Ewhurst, Surrey, which he modernized and expanded. However, he retained a studio in London, Garden Chambers, 32 Great Ormond Street, and continued to paint and exhibit well into the early years of the 20th century. He died at his home on May 25, 1924, at the age of 86.

Further reading:
Tom Pocock, Topham, and Son. A Family of Artists, London: Burgh House Museum, 1985.