William Harris Weatherhead Paintings

Click pictures to see a larger view.


1871 - This is the ealiest (sold) work identified.

245 "Puritan Girl Reading" 18x14 Oil took 37 hours and is reported as a Langham Study. Costing 5-6 in expenses it was sold in April 1871 with another of similar size for £8-17-6 to Mr George Wright, Bessingby Hall, Carmaly Hull. (Bought out of the Suffolk St. for £10-10-0, exhibited as £16-6-0, £1-12-6 commission paid).

This is an Oil painting which has initials and a date like Maggie's friend below.

The painting is reported to be very dark, in common with the few other oil paintings found.

 

 

 

1873

           

377 1873 Maggie's Friends 15x12 Watercolour took 57 hours and cost £1-0-6.
Sold from Suffolk Street in August 1874 for £11-6-0.
Strangely this picture has initials instead of a signature.

1885


767 1885 "There is sorrow on the sea" was painted in 1885. It was exhibited at the Royal Institute of Watercolours.

 

778 The Fisher Girls (Image supplied by courtesy of Stephen E. Einson).

This work is in Oil, 39.5 x 29.5, so quite large in comparison to many others at the time. It was painted as "Waiting Boats" which is a generic name for a lot of works on the same kind of subject. It took 123 hours to complete and cost £3-8-0 in expenses.

Sold in May 1886 as "But of all who weary be" to Capt W. A. Hanky, of 39 Radcliff Gardens, for £64-15-0

The painting found its way to an attic in America where it was left "Under a Sheet" until a Storm Window Installer found it and bought it. Since then it has been passed down in the family to its current owner. The work is now Tiled "The Fisher Girls.

 


"Churning" appears a regular favourite of WHW, repeated quite often;
 295 1872 Girl Churning 24 x 18 Oil, sold at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition in Jan 1873 for £19-19-0 to G.R.Cox esq. Liverpool.
 555 1877 Churning 36 x 24 Oil, sold at the Brighton Exhibition in Feb 1879 for £20-0-0
 559 1877 Churning 18x 14 Oil, sold at the Royal Hibernian Academy in July 1879 for £9-8-0
 684 1882 Churning 48 x 30.5 Oil, sold at Crystal Palace in August 1889 for £27-0-0
 696 1882 Churning 22 x 14, Watercolour, sold at the Nottingham Exhibition in Jan 1883 for £11-14-0
 797 1886 Picture Left, Churning 23 x 14.5 Watercolour, sold to Mr J Richardson (with 834 and 836) for £25-0-0 (for the three). Auctioned as "The dairy maid" in 2004
 
 



"Churning", Auctioned in 2004, Watercolour, Signed. This 11 x 7.5 copy appears to be an exact copy of 797 (door ajar the same amount) but does not appear in the logbook.

This raises a question about what a painting has to have to make it into the logbook. "Sketches are often not in the logbook, but this watercolour must have taken a fair time.


 

 

802 1887 The Covenanters 50 x 35 Inches, took 574 hours to paint in Watercolours.

Went to the Oldham Art Gallery in May 1889 for £150-0-0 (cost £22-12-10 in expenses)


Also 842, 1889 Covenanters 39.75 x 28.5 Watercolour.

 

 

 

1892

     

869 1892 When the life boats out 37.5 x 29.5 Watercolour, took 60 hours cost 13-0.
 

Sold in March 1893 to/at the Bewick club in Newcastle upon Tyne, for £35-5-0.
 

 

 

 


867 "Off to the Wreck". The large Watercolour 39.5 by 29.5 was one of a kind in terms of its content. It was never sold but handed down in the family until it was "gifted to the RNLI by F. Woodcock, a relative of the painter"; This is very tantalising information as it implies a section of the family tree previously unknown to the family, a marriage of Williams eldest son William to a Marianne Woodcock has been found and needs further investigation. This image is reproduced with kind permission of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

 

 

 

 

 

1895

    915 1895 27.25 x 15.75 Watercolour, no details of expenses or time taken.

    This is a very detailed watercolour, with much finer detail - as is the case with the larger works.

    The Wooden bench appears is many of the paintings, and is still in the family.