Lionel Percy Smythe (British 1839-1918) Boy resting beside a rock with his dog Oil on canvas laid down to panel 9.5 x 16.5cm (3½ x 6¼ in.) Provenance: Robert Dunthorne, The Rembrandt Head, London Lionel Percy Smythe trained at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1863. Additionally, Smythe regularly exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Watercolour Society. Smythe painted idyllic rural landscapes, genre and maritime scenes with both people and animals. He became associated with the Idyllists, a group of British artists, who depicted rural landscapes combining elements of both realism and idealism. Van Gogh admired the group and collected extracts from British newspapers about the Idyllists. As a child Smythe spent a great deal of time in France and this continued into his married life. He took frequented trips to France and eventually settled in Normandy in 1879, the couple later moved with their three children to Château d'Honvault between Wimereaux and Boulogne. Smythe lived and worked here until his death, drawing upon the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside and rural lifestyle. The present lot depicts a boy resting against a rock with his trilby hat pulled down slightly over his eyes as he shelters from the sunshine with his dog by his side and estuary landscape beyond.