Henry Robertson ARE, Hastings Beach – late 19th-century watercolour painting

Somerset & Wood

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Stock Number:

JY-043

Henry Robertson ARE, Hastings Beach – late 19th-century watercolour painting

An original late 19th-century watercolour painting, Henry Robertson ARE, Hastings Beach.

This wonderfully atmospheric watercolour shows fishing boats on the Stade beach at Hastings, with the East Cliff and distant pier silhouetted against the warm glow of the setting sun. The artist, Henry Robertson ARE (1848–1930), has layered impressionistic washes of colour, punctuated with gem-like bodycolour details in the orange-yellow sun, red fisherman's jumper and white breaking surf. The resulting image is one in which the activities of the fishing industry on the beach are in harmony with the glorious natural landscape around them.

Hastings is one of Britain's oldest fishing ports and has boasted a very particular style of sustainable beach-launched fishing for over 1000 years. The boats are hauled onto the town's shingle beach, the Stade, after each fishing trip, so they are necessarily modest in size, and the resulting inshore fishing practices are ecologically sound. In the 19th century this was done with the assistance of horses and local net shops grew up around this small-scale enterprise.

Many artists were drawn to Hastings in the 19th century, including J.M.W. Turner, William Henry Hunt, Samuel Prout, David Cox, William Collingwood and Peter de Wint.

Henry Robertson lived at Hastings for a period, and also St Leonards-on-Sea, and he is known for his coastal subjects in watercolour. He also painted views on the East Anglian coast, having lived at Ipswich and Norwich.

Robertson was a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1883–98. In 1886 he became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and exhibited at the Dudley Gallery; Manchester City Art Gallery; New Gallery; Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers 1885–98 and at the Royal Academy. He exhibited at Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle 1900–1908.

In watercolour and bodycolour with graphite underdrawing and annotations.

Presented in a delicate swept gilt frame with cream wash line mount. Image size: 17 x 23cm. Frame size: 35.5 x 42cm.

Provenance: Canon Gallery, Petworth; with dealer's label verso and accompanying exhibition leaflet and copy sales invoice.

All artworks come with a Certificate of Authenticity and—if it is a collection artwork—its accompanying collection text or artist biography.

Details

Signed: No.

Inscribed: No.

Height: 35.5cm (14″) Width: 42cm (16.5″)

Condition: In good condition for its age. There is a flattened oblique crease line at the lower left of the paper. Minor wear to the frame. Please see photos for detail.

Presented: In a swept gilt frame (35.5 x 42cm).

Henry Robertson ARE (1848–1930) was born at Liverpool in 1848, son of Charles Van der Meulen Robertson, a successful West India merchant born on the small island of Curacao, and his wife Harriette Hope, of the well-known Hope family of Liverpool. He was educated at Mansion Grammar School in Leatherhead. In 1877 he married Hamilton Campbell Barclay, the daughter of the Rev. William and Hamilton Barclay who were members of a prominent Gosport family.

Despite having siblings, Henry was the primary beneficiary of his father's will, and had the private income to pursue a career as an artist. His brother, Charles Robertson RWS (1844–1891), however, also became a successful artist, known for his Orientalist works.

Henry Robertson lived at Ipswich in the 1880s and 1890s, then moved to Norwich around 1900. By 1911 he is living at Hastings, then at St Leonards-on-Sea, where his wife died in 1922. Robertson died in Bromley, Kent in 1930.

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