An Irish Aesthetic Movement painted and ebonized four-panel screen Signed, "H. Cooper," Dublin, Ireland, circa 1880

Comprising four hand-painted canvas panels, each depicting a botanical landscape: a rose garden with blue jays, a marsh with blue heron, blue irises along a riverbank, and a flowering cactus with hummingbird in a tropical environment; two panels signed, "H. Cooper/ Dublin," lower edge, all panels with ebonized and parcel-gilt wood surround.

(H: 65 in. W: 21 3/4 in. (each panel))

Provenance

A Philadelphia collector.

canvas panels overall with craquelure commensurate with age; the canvas panels with some selecting retouching and evidence of some green fluorescence under UV light, mostly to edges, corners and backgrounds or sky, some occasionl rippling or creasing; the wood frames with some occasional scuffs or scrapes, and with some applied balusters re-glued, one baluster missing to reverse of one panel; the backs are lined with fabric, which generally has staining, scuffs, scrapes, and fading throughout, and is coming loose along some edges; the panels presently detached in half, with one side unscrewed and missing screws, and evidence that there were originally more panels at one time, with the end of one panel having inset areas where hinges would have been attached (now missing)