Graham Petrie - Early 20th Century Oil Girl Outside the Inn

Description

An atmospheric early 20th-century street scene by the well-listed artist Graham Petrie (1859-1940), depicting a young girl waiting outside an Italian inn. Soft, dappled light filters through leafy vines overhead, illuminating the worn cobblestones below. Signed. Inscribed on labels verso. Beautifully presented in a gilt frame. On paper.

Condition

In fine condition. Light wear to the frame.

Size

24 x 32cm (9.4" x 12.6")
Framed Size: 44.5 x 52.5cm (17.5" x 20.7")

Artist Biography

Graham Petrie (1859-1940) was a British painter, poster designer, and author, best remembered today for the landscape and travel posters he produced for railway companies. He was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1903 and to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1920. He was born in St Pancras, London, the son of Alexander Sturrock Petrie, a merchant, and Elizabeth Cochran. Educated at Mill Hill School, he first trained as an architect under Richard Phené Spiers before turning to painting, which he studied in London under Professor Fred Brown and later in Paris. Art ran in the family: his sisters Elisabeth Cochran Petrie (1847–1921) and Mary Petrie (1851–1934) were both watercolour artists. Petrie exhibited widely across the major London venues of his day. His work appeared at the Grosvenor Gallery (1889), with the Royal Society of British Artists (1890), at the Fine Art Society (1897), and with the British Society of Poster Designers (1927), among others including the New English Art Club. He showed regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition between 1893 and 1930. He was also a member of the Chelsea Arts Club, representing it on the Chelsea Society Council in 1928. His paintings ranged across European and North African subjects, including scenes from Venice, Morocco, and Tunisia, often in both oil and watercolour. In 1908 he published an illustrated travel book, Tunis, Kairouan & Carthage, featuring forty-eight of his own paintings. From about 1914 he lived at 1 Mallord Street, Chelsea, where he died on 31 May 1940 after accidentally setting his bedclothes alight with a cigarette. His ashes were interred in the family vault at Highgate Cemetery. If this is for a catalogue, gallery listing, or label, let me know the length and tone you'd like and I can tailor it — or put it into a formatted document for you.