Description
A stunning example of Mote’s work. This painting has been professionally cleaned and refurbished in 2018 and looks remarkably fresh. Mote styled his paintings on his idol John Constable and this is very evident in this picture. It shows a small herd of cows by a river with a young maiden nearby minding the cattle. The sky is a typical Mote Summery blue sky with plenty of fluffy white clouds. The picture has an ornate gilded wooden frame which measures cm, with the painting itself measuring cm.
George William Mote British 1832 -1909. An artist who was inspired to paint having seen John Constable’s works, Mote became renowned for painting the beautiful landscapes synonymous with the Surrey Hills and Sussex Downs. He exhibited regularly at The Royal Academy between 1857 and 1873. He also was seen at The British Institute between 1858 and 1865, but his major exhibitions were at the Suffolk Street Gallery of The Royal Society of British Artists.
The following is an an excerpt from a newspaper article featuring this very painting…
The painting that launched a business.
When I was a child my parents had a pair of oil paintings on their lounge wall by an artist called George William Mote. I was always brought up to respect and enjoy these pictures. In his teens and early twenties George William Mote was a gardener and carer to a famous portrait painter of the early 19th Century and member of The Royal Academy, Sir Thomas Phillips. Now Phillips had seen a talent in his young employee and encouraged him to nurture his skill. Eventually, with his masters blessing Mote left Phillips’s employ and went off to pursue his dream of becoming a landscape painter.
Now, the true family story that went with these two paintings my parents owned was that when Mote was a student artist, adamant that he wanted to be an artist like his hero, John Constable, he was frequently to be found in the hills around Guildford painting beautiful landscapes, honing his considerable artistic skills. My great-great-grandmother lived in the area and apparently used to take food and water out to the young man to sustain him during the many months that he was painting in the Surrey Hills.
One day my ancestor heard a knock at her door and the young artist stood there with a parcel wrapped in sackcloth. He announced that he was to leave the area and although he could never repay her for her kindness, he wanted the old lady to accept this parcel as a thank you for looking after him while he had been in the vicinity. She accepted the parcel which contained the two paintings that my mother still has on her walls to this day.
George William Mote was born in 1832 and as a young man was gardener and carer to one of this country’s greatest portrait painters, Sir Thomas Phillips RA. Mote started painting as a hobby in his spare time, encouraged by his master. He was greatly inspired by the work of another Royal Academician, John Constable, and very much wanted to follow in Constable’s footsteps. Mote left the employ of Phillips to pursue his dream and painted many landscape scenes in and around the Worcestershire countryside before moving south to the Surrey Hills and Kent. He became renowned for landscapes with the most beautiful skies and his work was exhibited many times at The Royal Academy, The Suffolk Street Gallery and The Royal Society of British Artists. Mote passed away in 1909 having achieved his lifelong aim to become a respected artist.
This wonderful oil painting is of a young cowherd and her cows crossing a river in the beautiful Surrey countryside. It is typical of Mote’s work with a beautifully sunny yet cloudy sky.
