Rayner quick jumps: Ann
Frances Louise Margaret
Nancy Richard Rose
Samuel Paintings Sources Dudley
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LOUISE RAYNER ABROAD IN EUROPE
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RHEIMS
Louise is known to have travelled across the English Channel into Northern France, but how much farther she got is uncertain since it was a common practice for artists to copy other artists' work to learn their technique (or because they liked the subject and never expected to go there themselves), and such a painting surviving without explanation can indicate a visit that was never actually made. On the other hand, it may just be that the record of the trip has been lost.
We only have four European images so far, and there are queries about some of them. The one exception is the superb view of Rheims Cathedral, France shown here to the right, which went to auction in late 2003. As with so many of her pictures, the drama of the architecture - in this case the cathedral spire climbing towards the heavens - is paired with teeming human life down at ground level, and here we see two groups of people interacting in the foreground, while just behind them, a slash of sunlight between the buildings spotlights a man apparently trying to open a door. Beyond them are many more people - not artificially posed for the paintbrush but caught in the midst of going about their business.
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WHERE?
We've had several guesses at this one, apparently titled A Court Yard but failed to confirm its location. You would think that the twin towers in the distance would be quick to match, but after checking scores of churches with twin towers, we have so far failed to match them. One problem is that they may no longer exist. Two world wars have drastically altered the architectural landscape of Europe since the picture was painted, but the towers haven't even shown up in older drawings. We would be glad to have help in identifying the location.
There is also a question mark on the artist. Louise's signature is clearly visible on the painting, but like one of the Conway paintings there is a doubt and this one tends to be given as attributed to Louise Rayner. It should be said that the original image we located was badly faded and a lot was done to give it the present colour balance - but it could still be wrong. Our own question would be the relative lack of people by Louise's normal standards, though some of her early paintings have less human presence than the bustle familiar in later ones.
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BOURGES?
Our third painting is A Cathedral Interior. It is believed to be of Bourges, but there is no definite identification of it. Unfortunately the image we have is small, making it difficult to close in on detail that might more positively confirm or deny the identification. However, we do at least know that it was Louise's work.
Another difficulty in establishing where Louise did (or did not) go when in Europe is that so few of her European paintings show up in UK auctions. Even if they did, they might not be titled; however, most known UK-auctioned paintings have been identified as showing British scenes. So the French (etc.) paintings must have stayed in France, either in original family hands or circulating through local sales. War damage may have accounted for some - and even some pillaging, though we doubt that Goering's art collection unit would have taken them since he seemed to work to an old masters shopping list.
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BRUGES
We have seen a painting called Flower Sellers in Bruges which shows the cloth hall with its tall round-tower in the background, but unfortunately we haven't got an image of it to display here.
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VENICE
This slightly over-magnified image shows a painting auctioned on Ebay in July 2004 entitled Venice Grand Canal and credited to Louis[e] Rayner. The photo of her writing on the back of the frame appeared to be an acceptable variant of an 1857 example and it suggested a sale previous to the Ebay one. Unusually, it was an oil, but the Rayner artists used both media, even if the main output by Louise and Margaret was watercolour.
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Andy King took a look at the images, especially the close-up, and said it did look like Louise's work. So are there doubts? Not serious ones, no. Except that there is absolutely no known record of Louise ever going anywhere near Venice, and it could be that the missing 'e' off her first name may not have been an error by the Ebay seller... But "Louis Rayner" doesn't turn up anywhere else.
There is still a willingness to believe that Louise did turn this one out, so how did it come about? One possibility is that as Frances lived on the continent for several years (her paintings include one of Lucerne in Switzerland), Louise may have gone out to visit her, and they may have singly or jointly gone on to Italy. And possibly her notebook for the trip eventually got lost.
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Harry Drummond, February 2008.
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Please take note: we claim no art expertise, and in no way do we offer provenance for any paintings. What
you see here was compiled out of interest in Louise Rayner's paintings and those by her family, but is based on sometimes
very fragmentary evidence. As such, it is inevitable that there will be errors, though we naturally hope to reduce these
over time.
We would gratefully receive any information or corrections that will help us to fill the gaps and resolve
unproved links - for example confirmation of dates of birth, death, etc., and details of other addresses the family lived
at (and roughly when). Images of any of the family's paintings would also be very welcome. Thank you!
Copyright © 2008 DudleyMall.
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