ROBERT KEMM (Salisbury, England, 1837 - London,... Lot 15

ROBERT KEMM (Salisbury, England, 1837 - London, 1895). "The Feast. Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Size: 73 x 63 cm; 81 x 68 cm (frame). In this work of costumbrist character Robert Kemm shows the moment in which a clergyman lights the candles of a chapel in the middle of the street. The act is observed by a group of faithful who kneel and pray to the religious image. The son of the carver and gilder William Kemm, Robert Kemm's interest in painting must have awakened very early, as at the age of only fourteen he is recorded in the census as an artist. During his early years Kemm produced two series of 256 watercolours of Wiltshire churches. Following his contemporaries J. Phillip, J. Bagnold Burgess and E. Long, Kemm made a trip to Spain in the years between 1955 and 1955. Long, he made a trip to Spain between 1861 and 1864, visiting Seville and Granada in particular. In the years preceding his first exhibition, Kemm devoted himself mainly to portraiture. His first exhibition at the Royal Society of British Artists took place in 1874. In this first exhibition Kemm already displayed all the typical elements of his style, with works on Spanish themes. It is worth mentioning the presentation of several works by Kemm in the exhibition "English Romantic Painters in 19th century Spain", organised in Zamora by Caja Duero in 1999, from a private Spanish collection. Robert Kemm is represented in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Salisbury Museum, the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, the Sunderland Museum and the Sheffield Museum, as well as in several important private collections.