A good quality oil painting on board depicting a coastal view of Lulworth Cove. It is very well executed with details of small figures, boats and birds and a very atmospheric sky. It is signed to the lower left corner and titled on the reverse of the frame.
It is framed in an ornate gilded carved wood and gesso frame which is superb quality with scrolling corner pieces, an intricate inner border and gilt slip.
The painting is in good condition for its age. There are some minor surface marks and some marks around the edges of the board but the colours are bright and vibrant and there are no major damages. The board does not fit the frame as well as I would expect and there are some very small gaps (see photos) so it it possible it has been reframed at some point in its life but nonetheless it still displays well. The gilding on the frame is clean and bright and it is in very good condition with a few minor knocks and losses but nothing detrimental or untoward.
William James Müller (1812 - 1845) was born in Bristol. At 15 he was apprenticed to James Baker Pyne, a successful follower of Turner.Müller travelled widely, visiting Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, Greece, France and Turkey. He is best known for depicting the monuments of the Near East but he also made sketching trips along the Thames and to Somerset and North Wales.His landscape style was strongly influenced by his study of masters such as Claude and Ruysdael and he was the best-known landscape painter of the Bristol School.In 1833 he exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time and would continue to exhibit there regularly over his short life.
