Pair of Gothic Architectural Street Scenes by H. T. Schafer

#18188: Pair of Gothic Architectural Street Scenes by H. T. Schafer
By Schafer, Henry Thomas (British, 1854-1915)
British, late 19th century
Each canvas: height 41cm, width 30cm, depth 2cm
Each frame: height 54cm, width 44cm, depth 5cm
This picturesque pair of oil paintings depicts bustling street scenes set before the great Gothic churches of Normandy, each animated by flower- and produce-sellers gathered on the cobbles. They are fine examples of the architectural genre painting that enjoyed lasting popularity in Britain through the second half of the 19th century, in which the medieval towns and cathedrals of France and the Low Countries were rendered with topographical precision and picturesque incident. The works are by the British painter Henry Thomas Schafer (1854–1915), a sculptor and painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy and was known for his continental town views.
The first painting shows the richly carved Flamboyant Gothic porch of the church of Saint-Maclou in Rouen, its pinnacled and crocketed portal rising the full height of the composition. Beneath it, women in aprons and headscarves tend baskets of flowers and vegetables, while further figures recede down the sunlit street beyond. Canvas awnings are slung across the church wall, and a statue in a Gothic niche presides over the market below.
The second painting depicts a half-timbered street with a sculpted market cross or fountain at its centre, the openwork spire of a great cathedral rising through the haze behind. Timber-framed houses with jettied upper storeys and steep tiled roofs line either side, their ground floors given over to shops, while women with baskets of flowers and produce cluster around the fountain and along the cobbled way. The reverse of one canvas identifies the scene as Chartres.
In both works Schafer handles the oil medium with a lively, textured touch, building up the crumbling masonry and carved ornament in thick impasto and enlivening the figures with bright accents of rose, blue and white. The contrast between the towering grey architecture and the warm bustle of daily life below is characteristic of the genre and of the artist's work.
One painting is signed 'H Schafer' at the lower left and the other at the lower right; one is further signed and inscribed on the reverse, where an old label records the subject as the porch of Saint-Maclou, Rouen, and gives the colourman Winsor & Newton, London.
A charming and finely detailed pair of continental street scenes, these paintings would grace any traditional interior.
$12,750