Original artwork, gouache and watercolour, signed, an illustration to 'Adam Bede' by George Eliot

"George ELIOT". - Gordon Frederick BROWNE (1858-1932).

"I've heard as there's no holding these Methodisses", the original artwork to the illustration bound between pp. 12 and 13 in the illustrated edition of 'Adam Bede' published in about 1910.

Gouache and watercolour, signed with initials 'G.B.' lower right corner, on toned artist board (11 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches).

NB: this watercolour is offered for sale unframed.

A very attractive original watercolour by one of the most successful illustrators of his time.

with a copy of the book:

"George ELIOT" [Mary Ann EVANS (1819-1880).

Adam Bede by George Eliot Illustrated by Gordon Browne. London & Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, Limited, [no date].

4to. [i-]viii; [1-]523[-524]. Half-title. 16 coloured plates, numerous black and white illustrations, all after Browne. (Some light toning). Original blue cloth, upper cover with onset coloured paper panel, upper cover and spine blocked in light brown, light brown endpapers (slightly bumped and scuffed, some discolouration to endpapers).

"British painter illustrator Gordon Frederick Browne was born at Banstead, Surrey in 1858. His father was Hablot Knight Browne, who as "Phiz" was noted for his illustrations of the books written by Charles Dickens. Gordon Browne studied at Hatherley's School of Art and South Kensington Schools, adopting his father's profession of book illustration. While still a student, Browne began accepting commissions as an illustrator, largely to support his family after an illness incapacitated his father.

Beginning in the 1880s Gordon Browne was one of Great Britain's most prolific illustrators, contributing regularly to many newspapers and magazines, as well as illustrating editions of books written by Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe, 1885), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels, 1886), Washington Irving (Rip Van Winkle, 1887), and Robert Louis Stevenson (Island Nights Entertainment, 1893). He also illustrated eight volumes of works by William Shakespeare, an edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales (1894), and his own Gordon Browne's Series of Old Fairy Tales (1886-1887).His illustrations appeared periodically in The Illustrated London News, The Quiver, The Sporting and Dramatic News, Cassell's Saturday Journal, Cassell's Family Magazine, The Boy's Own Paper, The Girl's Own Paper, The Pall Mall Magazine, The Sunday Strand, Little Folks, The Penny Magazine, and Puck. Some of his humorous drawings appeared as illustrations for his own comic books, which Browne wrote using the pseudonym "A. Nobody."

Although Gordon Browne never achieved the critical acclaim accorded his father -- in part because he never developed a long term association with a noted author -- his work was recognized by his election to the Royal Institute in 1896. After living for years at Richmond, Surrey, Gordon Browne died on May 27, 1932.

Sources: Houfe, Simon. The Dictionary of 19th Century British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists. Woodbridge, England: Antique Collectors' Club, 1996. p. 77.Peppin, Brigid and Lucy Micklethwait. Book Illustrators of the Twentieth Century. New York: Arco Publishing, Inc., 1984. pp. 59-61. " (see Special Collections, at the University of Delaware Library).