This late 19th-century oil painting by British artist Owen Bowen ROI (1873-1967) depicts a wintery river landscape.

Brilliant light rushes against the complexity of brooding storm clouds. Illuminating the sullen river akin to fervently polished silver. The effects are bewitching. Nature immortalised in a transient state, caught between contrasting moods.

Across the grassy banks, the foliage leans. Buckled by the irrepressible hand of the desolate months. It’s a leafless patchwork of rugged tones. Enlivened by the radiance of a halogen sky.

This is Bowen at his finest and the composition is masterful. Note the track, which ambles vertically - punctuated by a figure and culminating in a church. And the solitary tree, rising above the horizon, battered by the elements, yet standing nonetheless.

Here, the artist reveals beauty amid a landscape transformed by winter. The spindly woods, the churned earth, the cutting chill. There’s resilience here, a message perhaps.

Bowen was 20 when he produced this. A precocious talent, he’d already opened a gallery in Leeds and began exhibiting at the Royal Academy a year previous.

Signed/dated lower left and held within a gilt frame.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 40” x 26½” / 102cm x 67cm
Year of creation: 1893
Provenance: Private collection, England.
Condition: Artwork presents well. Canvas relined. Frame with some light wear.
Artist’s auction maximum: £6,600

Owen Bowen

Owen Bowen trained at the Leeds School of Art under William Gilbert Foster. He exhibited extensively including at the Walker Art Gallery, Royal Academy and the The Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He’s represented at various museums including Leeds, Harrogate, Kirklees and Bradford among others.

Learn more about Owen Bowen in our directory.