Somerset & Wood Fine Art

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Somerset & Wood Fine Art Somerset & Wood was born out of a shared love of art, history, design & collecting. We offer selecte We have a passion for English antique art.

Somerset & Wood was born out of a shared love of art, history, design and collecting. Our vision is to share this online through our blog, and to offer specially selected artworks for sale at very affordable prices. All our artworks are guaranteed original, one-off collectors’ pieces. We specialise in English 19th- and early 20th-century works on paper. With combined expertise from working in the fine art trade and for national museums across the UK, we have an interest in researching and bringing lesser-known artists into prominence. And, most importantly, as collectors (‘curators’) ourselves, we deal only in works that we think are of value and would ourselves be excited to own. It is vital to us that our works are original and unique, because, to us, here lies the joy of art. An artwork is an authentic and tangible creation from a singular imagination. When viewed – held – owned, a connection forms between the creator and viewer. In a world where products are becoming increasingly disposable and transactions impersonal, we celebrate these personal connections, across centuries – and, with the global dialogues enabled by the online marketplace, across continents.

- https://somersetandwood.com

This gem of a watercolour shows Italian artist and theorist Tommaso Minardi (1787–1871) recreating Rubens's Self-portrai...
27/09/2026

This gem of a watercolour shows Italian artist and theorist Tommaso Minardi (1787–1871) recreating Rubens's Self-portrait in a Hat, in the Uffizi Gallery collection. Minardi was an influential teacher in Rome in the early 19th century, working at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome from 1822 to 1858, having been recommended to the post by the sculptor Antonio Canova. A young and talented draughtsman, Minardi was lively and charismatic, deeply impressing the students of the academy and bringing a fresh perspective to the institution dominated by classicist painters. He was deeply knowledgeable and became a leading proponent of the Italian Purismo movement; this Rubens self-portrait has a direct restraint—an emphasis on light and dark and emotional connection—that likely appealed to Minardi's sensibilities.

🛒 Search stock number KE-021 at somersetandwood.com
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'By drawing the designs first it takes greatly from the merit of cutting; therefore, it is advisable for the learner, no...
26/09/2026

'By drawing the designs first it takes greatly from the merit of cutting; therefore, it is advisable for the learner, not to begin with doing so, but to form the figures with the scissors, without the aid of the pencil: a figure which looks well in drawing has a contrary effect in cutting; for in paper there must be more left to the imagination'.

So wrote consummate silhouette-cutting artist Barbara Anne Townshend (1781–1816) in her silhouette-cutting instruction book published in 1808, 'Introduction to the Art of Cutting Groups of Figures, Flowers, Birds, &c. in Black Paper'. The book provided examples and instructions for other women to learn the art of the silhouette; two further known editions followed in 1815 and 1836, a testament to the book's popularity and Townshend's significance in the history of the art form.

This stunning cut paper 'Pencil'd Geranium' is an exceptionally rare example of Townshend's original work.

🛒 Search stock number KE-022 at somersetandwood.com
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We list dozens of new stock items every month. Sign up to our email newsletter via our website to receive first look whe...
24/09/2026

We list dozens of new stock items every month. Sign up to our email newsletter via our website to receive first look when new pictures are listed.

View all new stock at somersetandwood.com/collections/new-acquisitions

William Neave Parker (1910–1961) spent much of his career working for the Natural History Museum in London and his illus...
29/07/2026

William Neave Parker (1910–1961) spent much of his career working for the Natural History Museum in London and his illustrations were regularly reproduced in the London Illustrated News. He is particularly known his illustrations of prehistoric flora and fauna; his ambition was to bring scientific theories of natural selection and animal evolution to a non-specialist audience.

Parker’s work has become highly collectable, particularly for its place in the history of popular science. Our bird pictures, rendered simultaneously with great care and joyous vibrancy, embody the artist’s passion for the natural world. He was Chairman of the Council for Canine Defence and Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Zoological Society.

🛒 Search stock number KD-891 at somersetandwood.com
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William Neave Parker (1910–1961) spent much of his career working for the Natural History Museum in London and his illus...
29/07/2026

William Neave Parker (1910–1961) spent much of his career working for the Natural History Museum in London and his illustrations were regularly reproduced in the London Illustrated News. He is particularly known his illustrations of prehistoric flora and fauna; his ambition was to bring scientific theories of natural selection and animal evolution to a non-specialist audience.

Parker's work has become highly collectable, particularly for its place in the history of popular science. Our bird pictures, rendered simultaneously with great care and joyous vibrancy, embody the artist's passion for the natural world. He was Chairman of the Council for Canine Defence and Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Zoological Society.

🛒 Search stock number KD-891 at somersetandwood.com
🛒 View the full collection at somersetandwood.com
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We find that antique topographical views of the UK never cease to be popular. Our longstanding Collis collection, newly ...
25/07/2026

We find that antique topographical views of the UK never cease to be popular. Our longstanding Collis collection, newly added to this week, is a prime example—presumably feeding that desire for connection in space and time that we all have. There is something special about finding a picture of a place that means something to you, filtered through someone else's eyes, rendered by someone else's hand, and—in the case of our pictures—in a different time. Our Collis pictures are small and modest, but communicate a connection with her home landscapes of the South West. Clara Maria Augusta Jane Collis (c.1826–1905) was eldest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Collis (1784–1849), who served—and was severely wounded—at the Battle of Talavera in Spain, during the Peninsula War. The Collis family lived at Upcott House near Taunton in Somerset, then, on Charles Collis’s death, moved to nearby Netherclay House. The collection includes drawings of these family homes, along with numerous landscape watercolours recording Clara’s extensive British tours.

And if you're thinking Clara Maria Augusta Jane is a mouthful, she had a roll call of the most spectacularly named siblings I've encountered! : Hector Crabb Bartholomew; Frederica Swinhoe [or Everildre] Louisa; Algernon Charles Lukin Ridsdale; Windham Trevelyan Browne; Sarianne Lucas; Gustavus Wheatley Berry; and Augustus Randolph Adolphus !!

🛒 Search stock number JM-255 at somersetandwood.com
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With another heatwave possibly on the way, this week we are at the seaside, with this brilliant 18th-century watercolour...
05/07/2026

With another heatwave possibly on the way, this week we are at the seaside, with this brilliant 18th-century watercolour depicting the monumental Martha Gunn (1726–1815), Brighton’s legendary ‘Dipper’, who helped women in and out of bathing machines in order to maintain their modesty when taking the waters. Martha Gunn was renowned for her strength and stamina, as well as her entrepreneurial spirit, capitalising on the new popularity of sea bathing. In a career that lasted nearly seventy years, her celebrity spread throughout the country and she became a favourite of George Augustus Frederick, the Prince of Wales.

The watercolour bears similarity to the street portraits of the provincial itinerant artist John Dempsey (1802–1877), particularly his subject ‘Bathing woman, Bridlington’, c.1825 [image 6] —but the subject, and the paper watermarked 1794, significantly predate Dempsey. The work is faintly inscribed on the verso ‘No.6 North Parade’ —is this North Parade Brighton, or possibly Bath? A number of the 18th-century caricaturists worked in Brighton, satirising the fashionable seaside resort of the extravagant Prince of Wales, including James Gillray, Robert Dighton and Thomas Rowlandson. The watercolour is rather in the vein of Dighton’s and Gillray’s caricatural figure portraits. Or perhaps the drawing was produced by one of Brighton’s numerous skilled profilists or silhouettists, who plied their trade in the town.

🛒 Search stock number KD-801 at somersetandwood.com
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The heatwave in the UK may have subsided, but this week we are at the seaside, with this brilliant 18th-century watercol...
05/07/2026

The heatwave in the UK may have subsided, but this week we are at the seaside, with this brilliant 18th-century watercolour depicting the monumental Martha Gunn (1726–1815), Brighton's legendary 'Dipper', who helped women in and out of bathing machines in order to maintain their modesty when taking the waters. Martha Gunn was renowned for her strength and stamina, as well as her entrepreneurial spirit, capitalising on the new popularity of sea bathing. In a career that lasted nearly seventy years, her celebrity spread throughout the country and she became a favourite of George Augustus Frederick, the Prince of Wales.

The watercolour bears similarity to the street portraits of the provincial itinerant artist John Dempsey (1802–1877), particularly his subject 'Bathing woman, Bridlington', c.1825 [image 6] —but the subject, and the paper watermarked 1794, significantly predate Dempsey. The work is faintly inscribed on the verso 'No.6 North Parade' —is this North Parade Brighton, or possibly Bath? A number of the 18th-century caricaturists worked in Brighton, satirising the fashionable seaside resort of the extravagant Prince of Wales, including James Gillray, Robert Dighton and Thomas Rowlandson. The watercolour is rather in the vein of Dighton's and Gillray's caricatural figure portraits. Or perhaps the drawing was produced by one of Brighton's numerous skilled profilists or silhouettists, who plied their trade in the town.

🛒 Search stock number KD-801 at somersetandwood.com
🌍 Free Delivery Worldwide

We have a gorgeous group of 17th-century Japanese Tosa School paintings this week. Likely illustrating The Tale of Genji...
04/07/2026

We have a gorgeous group of 17th-century Japanese Tosa School paintings this week. Likely illustrating The Tale of Genji, or possibly another courtly tale, they resemble smaller examples in the Bodleian Library and Minneapolis Institute of Art (images 4 and 5). They were no doubt bound at one time and accompanied by calligraphy. The pictorial devices are fascinating: the 'blown-off roof' (fukinuki yatai) technique of exposing the interior drama within a building, and the horizontal cloud motifs in blue and gold, which were commonly used to create a sense of artifice and symbolism, and to suggest a conflation of time and space within a limited pictorial field.

🛒 Search stock number KD-798 at somersetandwood.com
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Address

54B Frome Road
Bradford-on-Avon
BA151LA

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+441225864571

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