"Matterhorn"

Here for your consideration is a wonderfully detailed miniature painting of the Matterhorn. Signed and titled verso. Attributed to the artist William Archibald Wall. Dated 6/50 verso. Oil on heavy card stock. Condition is excellent. Presently unframed. Provenance: Maine collector.

The Matterhorn is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. Wikipedia

William Archibald Wall (1828 – 1888) was an American painter, born in New York in 1828. Died in Paddington, London in 1888. He specialized in waterscapes, landscapes and rural and urban views. Although American by birth, Wall spent many years living and working in London.

William Archibald Wall, Beached fishing boat and boats in very rough sea, c. 1865
Wall was the son of Irish-born painter William Guy Wall (1792 – 1864). Wall the elder got married in 1812, the same year he left Ireland for the United States. He and his wife had two daughters; William Archibald was their only son.

Wall contributed a landscape to the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1847 and again in 1853. He was in London in 1857 and 1858, and exhibited landscapes in those years in the Royal Academy, and in 1857 and 1859 in the British Institution. In 1861, he exhibited at the National Academy in New York. In 1865, 1870 and 1872 he again contributed to the Royal Academy, and was then living in, or near, London. His name last occurs in 1875, when he was residing at Norbiton.

In April 1871 he was living in Woking, Surrey. In April 1881 he was living on the Isle of Wight with his Sister Maria and Daughter Emily, Emily witnessed his death on 3rd February 1888 at 5, Surrendale Place, Paddington.