Thomas Clater RA (1789-1867) British Reading the Letter oil on canvas signed lower right 51 x

Thomas Clater RA (1789-1867) British Reading the Letter oil on canvas signed lower right 51 x 61cm (20.08 x 24.02in) Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 21st May 1998 Lot 292 Private Collection, Buckinghanshire Whyte's, Dublin 27th April 2004, Lot 124 Private Collection He first exhibited in London in 1819 at the British Institution and at the Royal Academy.Clater continued to send many pictures to the Royal Academy, British Institution, Suffolk Street Gallery, and all the principal exhibitions in the country every year up to 1863 In 1843 he was elected a fellow of the Society of British Artists. They were usually of a quietly humorous characters, scenes from domestic and provincial life, and executed in a manner based on that of the Dutch genre painters. 'Reading the Letter' depicts a young lady reading a letter to an older couple, possibly her parents with a third person behind. In the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool there is a picture by him representing 'A Chief of Gipsies dividing Spoil with his Tribe.' Clater resided for the latter portion of his life in Chelsea. Shortly after his death his widow married Jonathan Peel.