Ebenezer Newman Downard (British, active 1849-1889)


The two sisterssigned 'E. N. Downard' (lower right) oil on canvas 81.9 x 63.5cm (32 1/4 x 25in).
|ProvenanceChatsworth House, Derbyshire, Collection of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.Presumably purchased by either William Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790-1858) or William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire (1809-1891)Sale, Sotheby's, London, Chatsworth House, The Attic Sale, 7th October 2010, lot 675. Catalogued as 'Attributed to Charles West Cope'. The artist's signature was discovered on cleaning the painting. The Chatsworth Collection and this auction included other paintings by Downard.Purchased from the above sale by the present owner.Downard was a genre and landscape painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1849-1889. His use of meticulous details and clear, bright light shows the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, in particular William Holman Hunt. His work is represented in the permanent collection at Tate Britain by his Pre-Raphaelite style landscape painting 'A Mountain Path at Capel Curig, Wales', 1860.