James William Giles Coastal Landscape with Signed

Updated August 18, 2026

James William Giles (Scottish, 1801–1870), oil on canvas depicting a rugged coastal landscape with figures gathered among shoreline rocks, the open sea stretching toward a luminous horizon beneath a broad, cloud-filled sky and a dramatic reddish rock formation rising at right. The composition combines Giles’s interest in carefully observed landscape with a distinctly Romantic sense of atmosphere, using layered earth tones, cool blues, and softly modulated light to create considerable depth across the rocky foreground and distant water. Signed “J. William Giles” at the lower left corner. Giles was a noted Scottish landscape and animal painter and member of the Royal Scottish Academy, and signed works by him appear at major auction houses under the name James William Giles. According to provenance supplied with the painting, it was previously purchased at a Christie’s New York auction. Presented in a black-painted wood frame with gilt inner liner. The canvas exhibits pronounced age-related craquelure, surface grime, scattered abrasions and wear, with some areas of thinning and disturbance visible in the painted surface; the frame additionally shows rubbing, scratches, edge wear, and minor losses consistent with age. Measures 8.5"H x 11."W and 13"H x 15"W including frame.

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