Frank William Warwick Topham, Jr. (British, 1838-1924), The Antiquities Dealer

Oil on canvas, 1869, signed with the artist's monogram, retaining a label for The Cooling Galleries, Ltd. of London and Toronto affixed to the verso, presented in an antique frame with gallery plaque.


Stretcher size 16 1/2 x 24 1/4 in.; Frame dimensions 23 x 30 1/2 in.

Frank William Warwick Topham Jr. was an English painter renowned for his genre scenes, Italian landscapes, historical subjects, and refined watercolors. Trained by his father, watercolorist Francis W. Topham, and later at the Royal Academy Schools and under Charles Gleyre in Paris, he developed a style marked by warmth, narrative detail, and technical finesse. A frequent traveler to Italy, he captured its architecture and daily life with sensitivity, exhibiting widely at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, where he became a member. His works, from intimate watercolors to ambitious oils, remain valued on the art market, reflecting both the elegance of his vision and the enduring appeal of Victorian and Edwardian genre painting.

Frame with later gold paint and some restoration; light surface grime.