Picture of the Month: October 2023

S&W Picture of the Month is by one of the most significant artists to have hailed from the Channel Islands. Edmund Blampied RBA RE (1886–1966) was born on a farm at Ville Brée in the parish of St Martin on Jersey. He became an internationally renowned illustrator and etcher, but his deep connection with the island of Jersey and its rural landscapes remained a constant throughout his career. In this delightful, spirited watercolour Blampied paints a view looking across the south pier towards the Old Court House and merchants houses at St Aubin, Jersey, the town where he lived at his death in 1966.

This watercolour is a personal subject on an intimate scale, but it displays the artist's virtuoso line and understanding of colour. Whilst much of Blampied's print work is monochrome, in his use of colour he typically achieves a sense of the overall patterning of the whole, evoking the scene rather distinctly delineating it: here the rainbow tones merge almost as if light viewed through a prism. Briefer sketches at St Aubin and others that show a similar use of colour can be viewed at the Jersey Archive collection.

Stock number JZ-637