Watercolour By Robert George Talbot Kelly Of Italian Lake Landscape Painting Signed & Dated C1909

Description

We are delighted to bring to the market this very desirable and sought after large watercolour painting depicting a beautiful view of an Italian Lake by the highly collected artist Robert George Talbot Kelly RBA RI RBC FRGS, who has signed the painting in the lower left hand corner and dated it 1909.
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The painting depicts the lake with an arched wall covered in bougainvillea to the right of a long flight of steps, with a man with a pannier on his back walking down them. Within the arched wall is an iron gate which is the entrance to a boathouse. There is a lady and child further behind him on the path underneath the trees. 
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Robert George Talbot Kelly was an orientalist, landscape and genre painter, author and illustrator. He was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire in 1861, the son of the Irish landscape artist Robert George Kelly. He left school in 1876 to take up work at a firm of cotton traders, but was also taught art by his father and, in the early days, exhibited under the name of R. G. Kelly Jr. 
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After a holiday cruise, he was inspired to become a professional artist. He left his job in 1882 and settled in Egypt, acquired a studio and became a fluent Arabic speaker. He travelled throughout the country, spending much time with the Bedouin, who he described in his book ‘Egypt painted and described’ published 1902. During this time, he travelled to Burma, where he influenced the development of Burmese painting in the early 20th Century and published ‘Burma painted and described’ in 1905. He later published ‘Burma the land and people’ in 1909. He also illustrated Slatin’s ‘Fire and sword in the Sudon’ in 1896. In 1915, he returned to England for health reasons. 
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He died at the Cancer Hospital in Chelsea on 30th December 1934. 
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We could find no reference to him travelling to Italy, but we have found listed on google, a ‘Catalogue of an exhibition of water-colour drawings of Egypt and the Italian lakes by R. Talbot Kelly’. This painting may have been one of those exhibits. 
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He was elected a Member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1893 and a Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1907. He was also a Member of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists (RBC) and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. 
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He was married and was the father of Capt. Richard Barrett Talbot Kelly MBE MC RI, who was also an artist who specialised in birds and historical subjects. His granddaughter Chloe Talbot Kelly is also an artist. 
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There are 7 of his paintings in the National Collection, in the Glasgow Museum, Newport Museum & AG, 4 at the Williamson AG & Museum, and National Museums of Liverpool. 
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VALUES & PRICES
The record for one of his paintings is £18,000 (22,500 inc. premium) at Christie’s in 2008.
His auction prices vary and can average anything from £2000 upwards with results often achieving multiple times above the initial estimates.