Arthur Wardle (1864–1949) Exmoor British Moorland Landscape Oil Painting
Arthur Wardle (1864–1949) Exmoor British Moorland Landscape Oil Painting
An atmospheric signed Exmoor landscape and an uncommon standalone landscape within the predominantly animal and sporting oeuvre of celebrated British painter Arthur Wardle.
Highlights
• Arthur Wardle (British, 1864–1949)
• Exmoor
• Late 19th / early 20th century
• Oil on canvas laid on board
• Signed “ARTHUR WARDLE” lower right
• Further inscribed “Arthur Wardle” to the reverse backing
• Uncommon standalone landscape within Wardle’s predominantly animal and sporting oeuvre
• Heather, gorse, rocky moorland and an expansive cloud-filled sky
• Closely related south-west English landscape material is documented among works retained by Wardle and subsequently passing by family descent
• Wardle’s documented oeuvre includes standalone landscapes and numerous moorland compositions
• Provenance includes Burstow & Hewett, Fine Art and Sculpture, 17 November 2022, lot 525
• Painting approximately 24 × 33 cm
• Framed approximately 37 × 45 × 3 cm
• Presented in a traditional gilt frame
Introduction
An atmospheric signed moorland landscape by Arthur Wardle (1864–1949), one of the foremost British animal and sporting painters of the late Victorian and early 20th-century periods.
Traditionally entitled Exmoor, the work presents an expansive moorland landscape in miniature. Heather, gorse, rocky ground and richly varied vegetation occupy the foreground, while a pale winding track or watercourse draws the eye towards distant uplands beneath a luminous blue sky filled with drifting clouds.
Although Wardle is celebrated principally for sporting dogs, domestic animals and exotic wildlife, extensive research demonstrates that landscape formed an established component of his artistic practice.
The present work is particularly interesting because the animals that usually inhabit Wardle’s landscapes are entirely absent. Here, the landscape itself becomes the subject.
Catalogue Details
Artist: Arthur Wardle (British, 1864–1949)
Title: Exmoor
Date: Late 19th / early 20th century
Medium: Oil on canvas laid on board
Signature: Signed “ARTHUR WARDLE” lower right
Reverse: Backing additionally inscribed “Arthur Wardle”
Subject: British moorland landscape, traditionally identified as Exmoor
Painting dimensions: approximately 24 × 33 cm
Framed dimensions: approximately 37 × 45 × 3 cm
Frame: Traditional gilt frame
Catalogue Note
Wardle structures the composition around a pale rocky track or watercourse leading from the immediate foreground into the moor, creating considerable depth within the painting’s intimate dimensions.
The foreground is built from broken, energetic strokes of russet, plum, mauve, ochre, brown and moss green, evoking heather, gorse and rough upland vegetation. Pale stone and rocky highlights punctuate these deeper colours and guide the viewer towards the horizon.
Above, the landscape opens dramatically into an extensive blue sky animated by softly modelled cumulus clouds. The contrast between the densely worked foreground and luminous sky creates a convincing impression of atmosphere, distance and open moorland.
Research into Wardle’s documented oeuvre provides particularly important context for the present painting.
Moorland settings recur in his work. Christie’s has catalogued Wardle’s Setters on a Moor; and Pointers by a Stream, a pair of signed oils demonstrating his established use of moorland and watercourse environments closely related to the landscape vocabulary of Exmoor.
Other recorded titles include Gundogs on the Moors and A Rest on the Moor, further demonstrating Wardle’s sustained engagement with upland and moorland scenery.
Standalone landscape material by Wardle is also documented.
A River Landscape has been recorded with provenance from Sotheby’s important 1994 dispersal, Works from the Studio of Arthur Wardle, providing documentary evidence that independent landscape studies formed part of the material preserved in the artist’s studio.
Even more significant in relation to the present work is A Rocky Pathway, Dartmoor, an oil on board measuring approximately 32.5 × 24.5 cm, documented among works retained by Wardle and subsequently passing by family descent.
Its dimensions are strikingly close to the approximately 33 × 24 cm format of the present Exmoor. Its subject also establishes Wardle’s direct artistic engagement with the rocky upland landscape of south-west England independently of the animal subjects for which he became famous.
The comparison provides particularly valuable context for Exmoor: both are intimate south-west English upland landscapes in which rocky terrain and the natural environment form the principal subject.
Published specialist scholarship has additionally associated Wardle with holidays on Exmoor. This provides intriguing biographical context for the traditional title of the present work, although the precise topographical location depicted has not been established.
The Artist
Arthur Wardle was one of the leading British animal painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Modern institutional and major auction-house cataloguing generally records his dates as 1864–1949.
Wardle demonstrated considerable artistic ability from an early age. His first recorded Royal Academy exhibit, Study of Cattle on the Banks of the Thames, was shown in 1880 while he was still a teenager.
Significantly, that first exhibited work combined animal painting with landscape, demonstrating that close observation of the natural environment was present from the beginning of his professional career.
Wardle subsequently became particularly celebrated for sporting dogs, domestic animals and exotic wildlife. His ability to combine close observation of animal anatomy with accomplished natural settings became one of the defining characteristics of his work.
He exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy and became a member of the Pastel Society in 1911 and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1922.
His wider exhibition history included an important presentation of his Jungle Studies by Arthur Tooth & Sons in 1899, a one-man exhibition at the Fine Art Society in 1931 and an exhibition at Vicars Gallery in 1935.
The British Museum identifies Wardle as a British painter and draughtsman specialising in animal, wildlife and sporting subjects and records works after his designs within its collection.
Wardle is also represented within the Tate artist records.
Royal Academy and Exhibition Career
Wardle enjoyed a substantial exhibition career extending over several decades.
One particularly well-documented benchmark is his major painting A Fairy Tale.
The work was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1895 as catalogue no. 222 and subsequently at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Autumn Exhibition of 1895 as no. 1050.
It was also illustrated in H. Blackburn’s Academy Notes 1895.
More than a century later, A Fairy Tale achieved £337,875 at Christie’s in 2013, demonstrating the continuing importance of Wardle’s major documented exhibition pictures within the British art market.
This result is cited solely as an indication of the artist’s established market and institutional standing and is not presented as a valuation comparison with the present smaller landscape.
Wardle and the Moorland Landscape
Moorland was an established environment within Wardle’s artistic vocabulary.
Documented compositions include Setters on a Moor; and Pointers by a Stream, Gundogs on the Moors and A Rest on the Moor.
These works demonstrate his familiarity with the visual characteristics also encountered in the present painting: rough upland vegetation, heather, rocky terrain, streams and tracks, distant horizons and broad atmospheric skies.
The survival of standalone landscape material is particularly significant.
A River Landscape is documented with provenance from Sotheby’s 1994 Wardle studio dispersal.
Most importantly for comparison with Exmoor, A Rocky Pathway, Dartmoor is documented among works retained by Wardle and subsequently passing by family descent.
The Dartmoor work measures approximately 32.5 × 24.5 cm, making its format remarkably close to the present approximately 33 × 24 cm landscape.
The existence of this family-provenance Dartmoor landscape provides compelling evidence that Wardle independently painted intimate studies of the rocky upland scenery of south-west England.
The present Exmoor therefore belongs to a less familiar but documented aspect of Wardle’s practice in which landscape itself, rather than an animal subject, becomes the focus.
The 1994 Wardle Studio Sale
On 23 November 1994 Sotheby’s London held a dedicated dispersal entitled Works from the Studio of Arthur Wardle.
The substantial sale comprised approximately 298 lots and provides an important documentary source for understanding the breadth of material retained in Wardle’s studio.
Works carrying provenance from the sale have subsequently appeared at major auction houses and specialist dealers.
The documented River Landscape associated with this dispersal is particularly relevant to the present painting because it confirms the presence of independent landscape material within Wardle’s studio holdings.
Research into the complete 1994 studio-sale catalogue and its landscape material remains ongoing.
Signature and Physical Evidence
The painting is clearly signed “ARTHUR WARDLE” in block capitals at the lower right.
Comparative research demonstrates that uppercase “ARTHUR WARDLE” signatures are documented on works accepted and catalogued as Wardle by major international auction houses, including Christie’s.
Wardle is known to have employed more than one signature form during his career, including uppercase and mixed-case signatures.
The reverse backing of the present painting is additionally inscribed “Arthur Wardle”.
This reverse inscription is recorded as part of the physical history of the object. It provides evidence of an earlier attribution to Wardle but is not, in itself, presented as independent authentication of authorship.
Provenance
Private collection.
Burstow & Hewett, Fine Art and Sculpture, 17 November 2022, auction P171122, lot 525.
The Burstow & Hewett documentation describes the work as Arthur Wardle, Exmoor, signed, oil on canvas laid on board, approximately 24 × 33 cm, framed.
Acquired from the above sale by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD.
The original Burstow & Hewett purchase documentation is retained within the dealer’s records.
Exhibition History
No historic exhibition record for this individual painting has presently been identified.
This should be distinguished from Arthur Wardle’s extensive documented exhibition career, which included the Royal Academy, Walker Art Gallery, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Fine Art Society and Vicars Gallery.
Research into the historical exhibition catalogues and the 1994 Wardle studio dispersal remains ongoing.
No claim is made that the present Exmoor was exhibited at any of those institutions unless further documentary evidence is discovered.
Dating
The present work is catalogued as late 19th / early 20th century on stylistic and contextual grounds.
No dated inscription or presently identified contemporary exhibition record has been found that permits the work to be assigned securely to a particular year.
Earlier commercial descriptions have used an approximate date of circa 1900; however, the broader late 19th / early 20th-century dating is retained here as the more appropriately cautious catalogue description pending further documentary evidence.
Dimensions
Painting: approximately 24 cm high × 33 cm wide.
Framed: approximately 37 cm high × 45 cm wide × 3 cm deep.
Frame
Presented in a traditional gilt frame.
The frame displays age-related rubbing, scuffs, knocks and small chips or losses visible in the accompanying photographs.
No assertion is made that the frame is original to the painting. Likewise, no claim that the frame is later or re-gilded is made in the absence of documentary evidence establishing this.
Condition Report
Offered in good antique condition overall.
The painting displays age-related surface characteristics visible under close examination, including localised spotting or staining and minor peripheral paint wear or loss.
The paint surface retains clearly visible texture and varied brushwork throughout the sky, clouds, moorland vegetation and rocky foreground.
The work has not been subjected by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD to scientific material analysis or a formal conservation examination. Accordingly, observations concerning condition are based upon careful visual examination rather than a professional conservation report.
The traditional gilt frame displays rubbing, scuffs, knocks and small chips or losses commensurate with age and use.
Please examine all photographs carefully as they form an integral part of the condition description.
Shipping
Worldwide shipping is available.
The painting will be professionally packed with appropriate consideration given to the canvas laid on board and decorative gilt frame. Insured delivery can be arranged according to destination.
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.
Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD®
Specialising in carefully curated British and European fine art, antiques and historic works of art.
Every artwork is professionally researched and catalogued using comparative scholarship, published reference material and more than two decades of experience within the international fine art market. We are committed to offering collectors works of artistic and historical merit accompanied by transparent provenance research, detailed catalogue descriptions and professional, client-focused service.
Additional photographs and further information are available upon request.
