Sunday, February 19, 2017

11 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings from Cornwall & Scotland - With Footnotes, #24

William Edward Webb, (1862–1903)
Douglas Harbour, c. 1896
Oil on canvas
59 x 90 cm
Manx Museum

Douglas Harbour is located near Douglas Head on the southern end of Douglas, the capital town of the Isle of Man. It is the island's main commercial shipping port. The earliest recorded history indicates the presence of infrastructure facilitating the use of Douglas Harbour dates back to 1660. From the beginning of the 19th Century many things happened to open up the Island to an increasing amount of traffic. More Douglas Harbour

William Edward Webb (1862–1903), see below

Hendrik Barend Koekkoek, (Dutch, 1849-circa 1885)
Canal scene with boats
Oil on canvas
40 x 60.5cm (15 3/4 x 23 13/16in).
Private collection

Hendrik Barend (also Barend Hendrik) Koekkoek, (Dutch, 1849-circa 1885), was the son of H. Koekkoek. Hendrik was born in Amsterdam and was a student of MA Koekkoek. Many of his family were also artists.

He had a romantic view of landscapes as poetic representation of nature . Often, his paintings were of a forest with a castle or other building in the background. Noteworthy in his paintings is the role of light which was an intrinsic element in his art.

HB Koekkoek lived and worked in Amsterdam, Hilversum, Brussels and London.  He painted landscapes and woodland scenes.  He died in London in 1909 More Koekkoek, Barend Cornelis 

Henri Carnier
Flemish Port 
Oil on panel
25 x 20 cm. (9 13/16 x 7 7/8in.)
Private collection

Karl Kaufmann (born 1843 in Neuplachowitz, Austrian Silesia; † 27. April 1905 in Vienna) was an Austrian landscape and architectural painter. Kaufmann was a student at the Vienna Academy. His studies in the European North (Norway), to Holland, Germany (Franconia, Danzig, Königsberg) and often to Italy (Naples, Rome, Venice) gave him the motives for his numerous landscapes, including a remarkable number of views of Venice.

From 1900 Karl Kaufmann constantly lived in Vienna. He often signed his works using pseudonyms. Among various other names, Byon, H. Carnier, W. Carnier, F. Gilbert, O. Halm, C.Charpentier, J. Holmstedt, Charles Marchand, R. Merkner, B. Lambert, E. Leutner, M. Heger, Hobart, L. van Howe / van Hove, R. Jäger, Laarsen, Lundberg, F. Marchant, J. Marchant, C. Poul, F. Rodek, J. Rollin, Taupiac, L. Voigt or R. Benda, have often been used. More Karl Kaufmann

Henri Carnier
Flemish Port 
Oil on panel
25 x 20 cm. (9 13/16 x 7 7/8in.)
Private collection

Karl Kaufmann (born 1843 in Neuplachowitz, Austrian Silesia; † 27. April 1905 in Vienna), see above

Dorothea Sharp, RBA, ROI (British, 1874-1955)
Children playing by the shore
Oil on canvas
82.5 x 84.5cm (32 1/2 x 33 1/4in).
Private collection

Dorothea Sharp (British 1873—1955) was born in Dartford, Kent. Despite her family's disapproval, she trained at Regent Street Polytechnic, and in Paris where she discovered the work of Monet.. The latter greatly influenced her handling of subjects and colour in impressionist fashion. The Artist (journal) made much of her work, considering her to be one of the greatest women painters of her time. 

During WWII she moved to St Ives and she and became a prominent members of STISA. More Dorothea Sharp

Michael Brown, (British, 1854-1957)
Boys on a sea shore
Oil on canvas
15 x 20cm (5 7/8 x 7 7/8in).
Private collection

Michael Brown was a British visual artist who was born in 1854. Michael Brown has had numerous gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Corbett vs. Dempsey and at the ADA Gallery. Several works by the artist have been sold at auction, including 'PLAYING THE FIRST HOLE AT POINT GARRY, NORTH BERWICK' sold at Sotheby's Edinburgh 'Gleneagles Paintings' in 2005 for $129,672. There have been numerous articles about Michael Brown, including 'Baltimore riots: Artist hangs 'lynched' black dolls from tree in protest at deaths of Walter Scott, Eric Garner and Michael Brown' written by Neela Debnath for The Independent in 2015. The artist died in 1957. More Michael Brown

William McTaggart, RSA RSW (British, 1835-1910)
Tarbert, Loch Fyne
Watercolour
38 x 30.5cm (14 15/16 x 12in).
Private collection

Tarbert, or Tairbeart Loch Fìne, is a village in the West of Scotland in the Argyll and Bute council area. It is built around East Loch Tarbert, an inlet of Loch Fyne, and extends over the isthmus which links the peninsula of Kintyre to Knapdale and West Loch Tarbert. 

The name Tarbert is the anglicised form of the Gaelic word tairbeart. This refers to the narrowest strip of land between two bodies of water over which goods or entire boats can be carried (portage). In past times cargoes were discharged from vessels berthed in one loch, hauled over the isthmus to the other loch, loaded onto vessels berthed there and shipped onward, allowing seafarers to avoid the sail around the Mull of Kintyre.

Tarbert was anciently part of the Gaelic overkingdom of Dál Riata and protected by three castles. The ruin of the last of these castles—Tarbert Castle—still exists, and dominates Tarbert's skyline. Around the year 1098 Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, had his longship carried across the isthmus at Tarbert to signify his possession of the Western Isles.

Despite its distinction as a strategic stronghold during the Middle Ages, Tarbert's socioeconomic prosperity came during the Early Modern period, as the port developed into a fishing town. At its height, the Loch Fyne herring fishery attracted hundreds of vessels to Tarbert. More Tarbert

William McTaggart (25 October 1835 – 2 April 1910) was a Scottish landscape and marine painter born in the small village in Scotland. He moved to Edinburgh at the age of 16 and studied at the Trustees' Academy. He won several prizes as a student and exhibited his work in the Royal Scottish Academy, becoming a full member of the Academy in 1870. His early works were mainly figure paintings, often of children, but he later turned to land and Marine art specifically seascape painting.

McTaggart was fascinated with nature and man’s relationship with it, and he strove to capture aspects such as the transient effects of light on water. He adopted the Impressionist practice of painting out of doors, and his use of colour and bold brushwork. McTaggart was skilled in the use of both oil and watercolour. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of the Scottish landscape and is often labelled the "Scottish Impressionist".

He married Marjorie Henderson, the daughter of another painter, Joseph Henderson (artist) RSW (1832-1908), Joseph's sons John Henderson (1860-1924) and Joseph Morris Henderson (1863-1936) also being painters. McTaggart painted a striking portrait of his father in law, Joseph Henderson, which hangs in the Glasgow Museum. More William McTaggart

Sir James Lawton Wingate, RSA (British, 1846-1924)
Firth of Clyde 
Oil on canvas 
26 x 37 cm. (10 1/4 x 14 9/16 in.)
Private collection

The Firth of Clyde encloses the largest and deepest coastal waters in the British Isles, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula (above) which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran (below). Within the Firth of Clyde is another major island - the Isle of Bute. Given its strategic location, at the entrance to the middle/upper Clyde, Bute played a vitally important military (naval) role during World War II. More Firth of Clyde 

Sir James Lawton Wingate (9 October 1846 – 22 April 1924) was a Scottish painter of the late nineteenth century. He was born in Glasgow, and initially worked as a commercial clerk, taking drawing lessons in the early morning. He was influenced by Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites, and first exhibited in 1864 at the Glasgow Fine Art Institute. The appreciation he received led him to abandon his job and tour Italy in 1867-68 where he created 150 watercolour drawings.

Returning to Scotland, he lived at Hamilton, and developed a keen skill in painting landscapes and woodland scenes while studying at the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA).

In 1874 he moved to Crieff and later to Muthill, painting rustic genre scenes and later increasingly impressionistic landscapes which made his reputation. After 1880 he exhibited regularly at the RSA, becoming its President in 1919, also the year in which he was knighted. He resigned as President of the RSA shortly before his death in Edinburgh, aged 77. More James Lawton Wingate

Patrick Downie RSW (British, 1854-1945)
A Grey Morning off Arran , c. 1918
Watercolour 
36 x 53 cm. (14 3/16 x 20 7/8 in.)
Private collection

Arran or the Isle of Arran, is the seventh largest Scottish island. It is in the unitary council area of North Ayrshire. Arran has been continuously inhabited since the early Neolithic period, and numerous prehistoric remains have been found. From the 6th century onwards, Goidelic-speaking peoples from Ireland colonised it and it became a centre of religious activity. During the troubled Viking Age, Arran became the property of the Norwegian crown, until formally absorbed by the kingdom of Scotland in the 13th century.  It is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault and has been described as a "geologist's paradise". More Isle of Arran

Patrick Downie was born in Greenock in 1854. He showed great artistic ability from an early age. His father died when he was still very young, and Downie was forced to seek employment as a van man, and then as a postman. 

He decided to devote his life to art and began a period of intense study first in his country and then in Paris. He failed however to find this to be a lucrative prospect and in 1887 went to Paisley

Downie was an early contributor to the principal art exhibitions, including those of the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute and the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society, as well as to exhibitions in Paris, Venice and elsewhere on the continent. In 1905 he was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colour.

When George V and Queen Mary visited the Institute of the Fine Arts in Glasgow, the Queen, whose attention had been drawn to a picture by E. A. Hornell, said “I do not care for that style but there is a picture I like”, pointing to one signed by Patrick Downie. More Patrick Downie

Patrick Downie, (1854–1945)
Back to the Clyde
Oil on canvas
101.6 x 127 cm
Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Collection (Dundee City Council)

The River Clyde is a river, that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second-longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire. In the early medieval Cumbric language it was known as Clud or Clut, and was central to the Kingdom of Strathclyde. More The River Clyde 

Patrick Downie, (1854–1945), see above

William Edward Webb, (British, 1862-1903)
Seascape with Figures
Oil on Canvas
19” by 29 1/2”.
Private collection

William Edward Webb, (British, 1862-1903). A permanent resident of Manchester, he widely frequented the coasts and ports of Great Britain, producing an impressive output of active scenes celebrating the challenges faced by those who plied their trades on the open ocean.

Webb exhibited more than 60 paintings from 1890 to 1904, mostly in his hometown, but also with the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and three times with the Royal Academy in London. Greater commercial recognition came to Webb posthumously partially through the efforts of author Denys Brook-Hart, who saw what he identified as the extreme first-hand excellence of the artist.

Webb’s art is celebratory in spirit while it offers no false glamour of the hard lives faced by working sailors and fishermen in the 19th century. His seas are vibrant and active, his atmospheric light exceedingly realistic of the heavy skies of the British Isles, and his portrayals of the local people artistically insightful. More William Edward Webb

David Curtis, 1948 Born, Doncaster
Tall ships moored, Charleston-Bay
Watercolor
13 x23"
Private collection

Located about a mile outside the town of St Austell is Charlestown. It was constructed between 1791 and 1801 by Charles Rashleigh, entrepreneur and member of the local landowning family, in response to the growth of the local mining industry. Originally built to export copper and import coal, it was soon being used for the export of China Clay. It is from its creator that the the port gets its name. More Charleston-Bay

David Curtis is a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He is one of the UK's most successful and best known artists. David won first prize in the Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 1992, and has won many other awards for his spectacular art.

Essentially a "plein air" and figurative painter, working in both oil and watercolours, he is the author of numerous books and has work in collections all over the world. More David Curtis



George Sherwood Hunter, RBA (British, 1850-1919)
Fisherfolk Returning, Aberdeen, c. 1886
Oil on canvas
37 x 75 cm. (14 9/16 x 29 1/2 in.)
Private collection

Hunter was an Aberdeen artist. This is a view looking south, towards Girdle Ness lighthouse. The wrecking of the whaling ship Oscar here in 1813 with the loss of all but two of her crew of 45 led to the building of the lighthouse in 1833. 

George Sherwood Hunter, RBA (British, 1850-1919) was born on 30 May 1846 in Aberdeen, Scotland, and moved to London, where he exhibited both at Smith Street and the RA.  1897 found him in Cornwall, where he lived at Belle Vue, Newlyn, and from 1902 moved to The Malt House where he stayed until his death. Hunter assisted in teaching at the FORBES School of painting in the early days of the School.

At the 1895 Opening of NAG, Hunter exhibited three paintings - two from the 'memorable East' (Cornishman review cutting): A Jericho Patriarch and A Modern Canaanite Jerusalem (which both sold), and the third being a Spanish subject. In 1901 at NAG he showed West Coast of Scotland and in 1907 he sold Spanish Girl. The artist died on 18 June, 1919, age 73, in Newlyn. More George Sherwood Hunter

George Sherwood Hunter (1846–1919)
Fishermen, Newlyn, Cornwall
Oil on canvas
12 x 21 cm
University of Hull Art Collection

Newlyn is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, UK. Newlyn lies on the shore of Mount's Bay and forms a small conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance. It is part of the Penzance civil parish, and is the southern-most town on the British mainland. The principal industry is fishing, although there are also a wide variety of yachts and pleasure boats, in the harbour, as Newlyn is becoming an increasingly popular holiday destination. More Newlyn

George Sherwood Hunter (1846–1919), see above


Acknowledgement: Bonhams

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