Charles Neal Oil Painting Banks of the Wye Coppett Hill Herefordshire 1989
Charles Neal (b. 1951) Field Scene by Banks of the Wye, Coppett Hill, Herefordshire, 1989
Signed British Impressionist Oil Painting with 1989 John Campbell Master Framers Documentary History
Highlights
• Original oil on canvas by British artist Charles Neal
• Signed “C. Neal” lower right
• Dated 1989
• Original handwritten subject and location label verso
• Depicts a field by the Banks of the Wye at Coppett Hill also spelling variation as Coppet Hill, Herefordshire
• Original canvas dimensions recorded verso as 24 × 20 inches
• John Campbell Master Framers label dated 17 June 1989
• Contemporary with Neal’s documented Fields of Vision exhibition at John Campbell Gallery, London
• Three figures within a richly coloured summer meadow
• Expressive broken colour, directional brushwork and areas of impasto
• Private UK collection provenance
• Presented in a decorative moulded frame
• Certificate of Sale & Dealer Attribution supplied
Introduction
A vibrant signed landscape by British painter Charles Neal (b. 1951), depicting a summer field by the Banks of the River Wye at Coppett Hill in Herefordshire.
Executed in 1989, the painting combines Neal’s characteristic interest in natural light, colour and atmosphere with unusually valuable documentary evidence preserved on the reverse.
An apparently contemporary handwritten label identifies the scene as a field by the Banks of the Wye at Coppett Hill, Herefordshire, and records the canvas dimensions as 24 × 20 inches. A separate professional label bearing the stamp of John Campbell Master Framers documents temporary retouching varnish on 17 June 1989.
This Campbell association is particularly interesting because Neal was exhibiting regularly with John Campbell Gallery during the later 1980s. His documented exhibition Fields of Vision was held there in 1989, the same year as the dated label attached to this painting.
No exhibition catalogue, checklist or other documentation has presently been identified confirming that this individual painting was included in Fields of Vision, and the connection is therefore recorded as historical context rather than confirmed exhibition provenance.
Catalogue Details
Artist: Charles Neal
Artist dates: Born 1951
Nationality: British
Date: 1989
Title: Field Scene by Banks of the Wye, Coppet Hill, Herefordshire
Medium: Oil on canvas
Signature: Signed “C. Neal” lower right
Subject: Coppett Hill and the Wye Valley, Herefordshire
Orientation: Portrait
Canvas dimensions: 24 × 20 inches / approximately 61 × 50.8 cm
Framed dimensions: 63.5 cm wide × 74 cm high × 3.5 cm deep
Verso: Original handwritten subject label and dated John Campbell Master Framers varnishing label
Frame: Decorative moulded frame
Catalogue Note
Neal places the viewer immediately before an abundant summer meadow, allowing vegetation, colour and changing illumination to dominate the foreground.
The field is constructed through an energetic accumulation of green, yellow, ochre, violet, cream and white. Long directional strokes describe grasses and stems, while smaller touches of more heavily applied pigment create the impression of scattered summer wildflowers.
Three figures appear within the middle distance. Economically described and modest in scale, their pale clothing forms a sequence of bright accents against the surrounding greens and darker woodland. They introduce human activity into the landscape without becoming its principal subject.
A substantial stand of mature trees anchors the left side of the composition. Their trunks and branches emerge intermittently through a dense canopy painted with overlapping strokes of green, brown and blue-grey.
Beyond the meadow, the landscape opens towards hedgerows and distant fields. Above them, an expansive blue sky carrying broad passages of pale cloud introduces light and space to the upper part of the composition.
The painting is particularly effective in its contrast between the shaded woodland at left and the intensely illuminated open meadow.
Close examination reveals the physical character of Neal’s technique. Some passages are thinly brushed, allowing the texture of the canvas to remain visible between strokes. Elsewhere, particularly within the flowers and illuminated vegetation, pigment has been applied more substantially to produce raised areas of impasto.
At close range the painting reveals individual strokes, deposits of colour and exposed areas of canvas texture. From normal viewing distance these separate marks visually combine into grasses, flowers, foliage, figures, atmosphere and sunlight.
Coppett Hill and the Wye Valley
The geographical identification of the landscape is supported by physical evidence retained with the painting rather than being based solely upon later interpretation.
The handwritten label identifies the scene with Coppett Hill, Herefordshire, and the Banks of the Wye.
Coppett Hill rises above Goodrich within the Lower Wye Valley landscape. The area combines woodland, grassland and extensive rural views, characteristics particularly suited to Neal’s sustained interest in recording identifiable places through changing light, colour and season.
The painting can therefore be understood as a study of a specifically recorded Herefordshire landscape rather than a generalized pastoral scene.
Original Verso Inscription
An apparently contemporary handwritten label attached to the reverse records approximately:
“Field Scene.
by Banks of the Wye.
Coppet Hill Herefordshire.
24 × 20”
The inscription is an important element of the painting’s documentary history.
It provides evidence for the subject, geographical location and original canvas dimensions and forms the basis for the title under which the painting is catalogued here.
The established spelling Coppett Hill is retained.
John Campbell Master Framers — 17 June 1989
A separate professional varnishing label retained on the reverse bears the circular stamp:
JOHN CAMPBELL
MASTER FRAMERS
The label records temporary retouching varnish dated:
17 June 1989
Printed instructions advise that final varnishing should take place approximately six to twelve months following the temporary application. The section provided for recording final varnishing appears not to have been completed.
This dated physical evidence establishes that the painting had been completed and had entered the professional preparation or presentation process by June 1989.
It also supports cataloguing the work firmly as 1989, rather than the less precise “circa 1989”.
Charles Neal and John Campbell Gallery
The John Campbell documentation becomes particularly interesting when considered alongside Neal’s contemporary exhibition history.
Published exhibition records document a sustained professional relationship between Charles Neal and John Campbell Gallery, London, during the later 1980s and 1990s.
Recorded exhibitions include:
1986 — Summer Re-Visited
1987 — Heart of England
1988 — Nature in Colour
1989 — Fields of Vision
1992 — Bretagne
1995 — Colours of Summer
1996 — Studio Collection
The present painting therefore carries a John Campbell Master Framers label dated 17 June 1989, during the same year in which Neal presented Fields of Vision at John Campbell Gallery.
This provides a noteworthy connection between the physical history of the painting and Neal’s documented professional activity at the time.
The evidence does not, however, establish that this particular work was exhibited in Fields of Vision. In the absence of an exhibition label, catalogue entry, stock record or checklist identifying the painting, no confirmed exhibition provenance is claimed.
The Artist
Charles Neal was born in Surrey in 1951 and is a British painter particularly associated with landscapes, gardens, coastal subjects and historic estates.
His formal artistic training began during his teenage years under Malcolm Domingo and Frances Lane-Mason. After approximately a decade of study, Neal developed an independent practice and travelled through Britain and France in search of subjects.
He subsequently settled in the Cotswolds, whose countryside became an important and enduring source of inspiration.
Neal’s landscape paintings combine close observation of place with an Impressionist concern for light, colour and atmosphere. Seasonal change and the visual character of a landscape at a particular moment have remained recurrent themes throughout his career.
His professional exhibition record was established by the early 1980s. Published exhibition histories record his participation in the Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition in 1982 and again in 1983, followed by gallery exhibitions in London and Gloucestershire.
By the middle of the decade he had established the sustained professional relationship with John Campbell Gallery that provides particularly relevant context for the present painting.
The Painted Garden
An important development in Neal’s later career came with the creation of his Painted Garden series.
The first major exhibition in this continuing project focused upon Rosemary Verey’s celebrated garden at Barnsley House in Gloucestershire.
Presented at the Museum of Garden History in London in 1994, the exhibition was opened by the then Prince of Wales.
The project developed into a longstanding exploration of notable gardens and their changing appearance through different seasons and conditions of natural light.
Neal subsequently extended this interest to gardens and landscapes in Britain and abroad.
The present Coppett Hill painting predates the first Painted Garden exhibition by approximately five years, placing it within an earlier phase of Neal’s landscape career. Nevertheless, the close attention to vegetation, season, identifiable place and natural illumination already anticipates concerns that remained important throughout his mature work.
Later projects have included substantial bodies of paintings associated with important historic estates and gardens including Blenheim Palace, Belvoir Castle and Highgrove.
Findlay Galleries has represented Neal exclusively since 2002.
Comparative Work — Near Poulton, Gloucestershire
A particularly useful comparison is provided by Charles Neal’s Near Poulton – Gloucestershire, dated 1990.
Recorded by Leighton Fine Art, that painting is an oil on canvas measuring 28 × 24 inches. It is signed lower right and, importantly, is described as being titled on an original label verso. Its provenance is recorded as a private United Kingdom collection.
The work dates only approximately one year after the present Coppett Hill landscape.
Both paintings are oils on canvas, depict specifically identified western English locations, are signed lower right and retain verso documentation recording their subjects.
The comparison provides useful independent evidence for Neal’s working and documentary practice around 1989–1990 and reinforces the significance of the handwritten Coppett Hill inscription retained on the present work.
Provenance & Recorded History
Direct from the artist, according to previous provenance information.
Private Southern England collection.
Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD®.
Documentary & Framing History
John Campbell Master Framers.
Temporary retouching varnish recorded 17 June 1989.
The John Campbell label documents professional handling and varnishing rather than establishing ownership and is therefore recorded separately from the painting’s ownership provenance.
Exhibition History
No confirmed exhibition history for this individual painting has presently been established.
Charles Neal exhibited Fields of Vision at John Campbell Gallery, London, in 1989. The present painting retains a John Campbell Master Framers label dated 17 June of the same year.
No exhibition label, catalogue entry, stock record or checklist has presently been identified confirming that this particular painting formed part of Fields of Vision.
Dimensions
Canvas: 24 × 20 inches / approximately 61 × 50.8 cm.
Framed: 63.5 cm wide × 74 cm high × 3.5 cm deep.
Condition Report
The painting presents in very good overall condition for its age.
The painted surface retains strong colour together with extensive original texture and areas of raised impasto.
Close examination reveals passages where the texture and weave of the canvas remain visible between individual strokes. These characteristics appear principally related to Neal’s method of paint application rather than deterioration.
Minor age-related surface characteristics and localised imperfections are present consistent with a work dating from 1989.
No major structural damage is apparent from the available visual examination.
The decorative frame presents well overall with minor marks and imperfections consistent with age, handling and display.
The original handwritten subject label and dated John Campbell Master Framers label survive verso and form important elements of the painting’s documentary history.
Please refer closely to the accompanying photographs, which form an integral part of the condition description.
Shipping
Worldwide shipping is available.
The painting will be professionally packaged and fully insured for transit.
Certificate of Sale & Dealer Attribution
The artwork will be supplied with a Certificate of Sale & Dealer Attribution issued by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD®, recording the artwork’s catalogue details, attribution, provenance as stated, and details of the sale. This document accompanies the work as part of its ongoing ownership and provenance record.
Attribution and Research
The historical observations, provenance research, attribution analysis and contextual commentary presented within this catalogue entry represent the professional opinion of Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD®. They are offered in good faith as informed scholarly assessments based upon the available evidence, comparative research, published reference material and our experience within the international fine art market.
These observations should be understood as professional opinions rather than definitive statements of fact or guarantees of authorship, attribution, date, origin, provenance or historical interpretation. As with all historic works of art, future documentary discoveries, technical examination, conservation analysis or advances in academic research may refine, expand or revise current interpretations.
The identification of the subject as a field scene by the Banks of the Wye at Coppett Hill, Herefordshire, is supported by the surviving handwritten label verso. The dating to 1989 is supported by the John Campbell Master Framers varnishing label dated 17 June 1989. Although Charles Neal is documented as exhibiting Fields of Vision at John Campbell Gallery during 1989, no evidence has presently been identified confirming that this individual painting was included in that exhibition.
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