The wilderness shall blossom (1920)

Watercolour on paper, signed in monogram lower right, dated 1920, titled The Wilderness Shall Blossom lower right, 33 x 49.5 cms (sight), in a gilt frame with slip, 66 x 81 cms.

Henry Richard “Harry” Goodwin (1842–1925) was a British landscape artist noted for his refined watercolours and oil paintings of English and Continental subjects. Born in Maidstone, Kent, he was the older brother of the prominent landscape painter Albert Goodwin. From 1867 onward, he regularly exhibited his art at major London galleries as well as the Royal Academy of Arts, the Society of British Artists, and the New Society of Painters in Water Colours.

This attractive painting shows the bloom of wildflowers in a mountain setting, reminiscent of Scotland, although the artist also completed a series of works in Switzerland.

Goodwin’s works are held in collections such as the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery, the Christ’s Hospital of Abingdon, and The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum.