The collection (part of it) is shown on the website of Olympia Auctions as 'The Estate of John Russell Taylor: Author, Critic, Collector'. [See the website of Olympia Auctions.] It contains no less than three fan-shaped paintings and a lithograph by Charles Shannon. The fan-shape appealed to Shannon, an oil painting in this form, 'Girl Bathers in a Boat’, is in the collection of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (Cecil French Bequest, 1954).
 |
| Charles Shannon, 'The Snow - Winter' (1907): lithograph |
The lithograph is listed as number 73 in Paul Delaney's The Lithographs of Charles Shannon 1863-1937 (1978) - it is called 'The Snow - Winter' and dates from 1907. It is one of seven fan-shaped lithographs by Shannon.
There are also two fan-shaped paintings on silk depicting two female nudes (lot 224) and a nude woman, a small child and another woman (lot 226), as well as a watercolour on paper showing a group of four people bending over, lying down or sitting down with a young child at the centre (lot 225).
 |
| Charles Shannon, 'First Steps' (undated), watercolour. |
The watercolour was sold in the 1939 auction following the death of Shannon in 1937: Catalogue of Fine Paintings by Old Masters and Modern Drawings. London, Sotheby's, 14 June 1939, p. 6, no. 31. The description identifies it as 'Fan Design : "First Steps"[,] Water-colour'.
 |
| Charles Shannon, a naked woman, a child and a second woman, fan-shaped painting on silk (undated) |
The other two paintings on silk are not easily identified. Lot 226 shows a naked woman kneeling down, drying herself, handing a towel to a naked young child who is being encouraged by a second woman sitting down. The setting is a beach (unlike the garden in a woodcut called 'Hot August' which has a somewhat similar image).
 |
| Charles Shannon, two naked women at the beach, fan-shaped painting on silk (undated) |
The other silk painting (lot 224) depicts two naked women, also at the beach; the background has obviously darkened, like in many Shannon paintings.
Many of these studies by Shannon are undocumented; it is pleasing to have these images.
John Russell Taylor also possessed fan-shaped works by the artists Alan Odle and George Sheringham.