Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1855-1938) Etching and Drypoint "Peach Blossoms". Pencil signed in the margin Mortimer Menpes imp (self printed) c. 1897. This etching is the mirror image of a painting titled 'Peach Blossom' which Menpes included in his 1901 memoir, Japan: A Record in Colour. The painting came on the market in April 2008 at Christie's London with the title 'Sakura in a Temple Garden'. Professionally framed and matted with silk mat. In frame measures 18"x21"x1'. Weight 4 pds. PROVENANCE: A Private Charleston SC Estate. A British painter and printmaker of Australian birth, Mortimer Menpes studied at the Adelaide School of Design with John Hood. In 1875, his family moved to London and he married. Three years later, he enrolled at the South Kensington School of Design, studying with Edward John Poynter. In 1880, Menpes went on a sketching tour of Brittany and later that year met Whistler. He left art school to study informally with Whistler, learning much from him about composition and etching technique. He became Whistler’s chief studio assistant and avid artistic follower. Menpes’ own reputation was soon established. He regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy, was elected to the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers in 1881, and became a member of the Society of British Artists in 1885. Menpes later went to produce some of the most comprehensive body of etchings ever completed by a European in the East. Like his mentor, Menpes was influenced by the art of Japan, especially its woodblock prints. In 1887, he began an extended journey to Japan. When he returned, his Japanese paintings formed the first of many successful one-man exhibitions; the exhibition was held at Dowdeswell, London. He later traveled to South Africa, where he made illustrations of the Boer War in 1900.

good