Artists, Hastings & Hastings Country Park

I have written before about 19th century artists coming to Hastings and its environs to admire the scenery and to paint, particularly 6 years ago when I wrote a blog about Watercolourists, notably J.M.W. Turner, and a blog about the Pre-Raphaelites. Well, I reminded myself many times whilst walking across Hastings Country Park for my exercise during the COVID-19 Crisis and observing this view down Warren Glen, and particularly when filming this video whilst looking down the glen and admiring the cattle.

One of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, William Holman Hunt, came to Hastings a number of times, particularly in 1852 to carry out a commission, Our English Coasts, a visit during which he was accompanied by Edward Lear, who requested tutoring, and when they stayed at Clive Vale Farm, which no longer exists. This is discussed in my earlier blog, as is Hunt's painting of the daughter of a local labourer, The Schoolgirl's Hymn. Hunt and Lear were joined by Millais for some of that time, and Hunt was accompanied by Millais again during a later visit in 1858 where they stayed at Fairlight Lodge, when he worked on Fairlight Downs, Sunlight on the Sea (above) which he had originally started during the first visit 6 years previously, and The Schoolgirl's Hymn, which was completed in 1859. 

You will notice that the first photograph above is from slightly below the view from where Holman Hunt worked on Fairlight Downs, Sunlight on the Sea, but this field now is more likely to have either Exmoor Ponies or Belted Galloway Cattle in it, rather than sheep. Also, the dog in the painting was added later I believe, and is likely a black spaniel, but it was suggested in correspondence with Dante Gabriel Rossetti that it was based on the Clive Vale farmer's Newfoundland dog that Hunt met during the 1852 visit.

The fun they had... 😉 and it is a great view, enjoy!

Just a couple of days left...

You now have only a couple of days left in which to see Hastings very own Turner watercolour at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery before it goes into storage for a year or two, as I suggested in my blog recently. I visited earlier today to take advantage of it still be exhibited (until Sunday) and took this photograph, and there are many other wonderful artworks to enjoy, well worth the visit!

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery and The Stade & Fishing

Today (until 5pm) and this week (opening times: closed Monday, 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday, 12 noon to 5pm Sunday 27th), there are 2 exhibitions at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery due to end next Sunday that concern The Stade, and Hastings Fishing Quarter and Fleet, so hurry if you don't want to miss them. They are Fishing for Generations (website), a photographic exhibition of John Cole's that portrays the men and women of Hastings fishing community from the 1990s to today, and:

The Art of Life on the Stade (website), with artworks that "explore fishing activity, complemented by several historic fishing objects." This exhibition has also featured Hastings very own Turner painting, one of 10 he is known to have painted in Hastings, the early 19th century Fishmarket on the Sands.

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery is uphill on the right of Bohemia Road in John's Place TN34 1ET; more details for visiting can be found at the website. Enjoy!

Last TUESDAY Afternoon Guided Old Town Walk for 2018

This afternoon sees the last of the 2018 regular Tuesday afternoon Old Hastings Preservation Society's (OHPS) free guided walks of Hastings Old Town, although there are still two to come on Saturday 15th of September and Sunday 14th of October 2018! If you wish to follow the walk this afternoon, you need to meet up by the top of the West Hill Lift for 2.30pm. A volunteer guide from the OHPS will show you around the old town, with its historic buildings, twittens, and its many stories, and will tell you about the wealth of talented celebrities of their age who have visited and/or lived here, for example, watercolour artists in the early 19th century, including J.M.W. Turner (blog), indeed, the celebrities keep on arriving in the early 21st century!

The walk will proceed across the West Hill and lead gently downhill into the old town with a number of steps involved, and will last about 2 hours. The OHPS provides for this guided walk free of charge, though as it is a registered charity, they would be very grateful for all donations made, many thanks (website). You are advised to wear comfortable walking shoes, and the weather is forecast to be cloudy, so don't be surprised if there is some light rain (Met Office). Whatever, enjoy the afternoon!

Tuesday's Regular Old Town Guided Walk

Tomorrow (28th August) will again be blessed with an opportunity to take part in the Old Hastings Preservation Society's (OHPS) regular Tuesday afternoon free guided walk of Hastings Old Town. If you wish to follow the walk you need to meet up by the top of the West Hill Lift for 2.30pm. A volunteer guide from the OHPS will show you around the old town, with its historic buildings, twittens, and its many stories, and will tell you about the wealth of talented celebrities of their age who have visited and/or lived here, for example, artists in the early 19th century, including J.M.W. Turner (blog), indeed, the celebrities keep on arriving in the early 21st century!

The walk will proceed across the West Hill and lead gently downhill into the old town, with a number of steps involved, and will last about 2 hours. The OHPS provides for this guided walk free of charge, though as a registered charity, they would be very grateful for all donations made, many thanks (website). You are advised to wear comfortable walking shoes, and the weather is forecast to be cloudy with sunny intervals (Met Office). Enjoy the afternoon!

19th Century Watercolourists, to be re-written...

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery

OK, I'm not re-writing history, but I have recently received some new (to me) very interesting information about 19th century watercolour artists in Hastings which, together with the results of the closure of the Old Town Hall Museum, has encouraged me to do a wee bit more research and re-write my 3 year-old blog, where did those 3 years go?!? Anyway, I still have to visit once again, and always a pleasure, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery in John's Place, up Bohemia Road TN34 1ET, however...

Fish Market on the Sands, Early Morning (1824)

I noticed on their website that the museum's Turner painting is back on display, so please do visit the Museum & Art Gallery to enjoy; opening hours until April are 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday, and 12 noon to 4pm on Sundays, closed on Mondays.

More to come!

J. M. W. Turner back on show!

I hadn't been to Hastings Museum & Art Gallery for a while, and I knew our very own Turner painting was back on show, so I made a trip up Bohemia Road to the Museum (website), friendly and helpful staff, beautiful building, interesting, with plenty to see, and free admission (but don't forget, closed on Mondays)! 

So, what's there? Well, a new display, The Story of Hastings in 66 Objects, with key stories about Hastings, local characters, and representative objects for each, including a very nice Lambretta; I spent longer than I ever have before in the Grey Owl exhibition, ie our very own Native American aka Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, the video shown is excellent, with original film of this famous conservationist; and, of course, the current art exhibition, All at Sea, which includes...

Turner's Fish Market on the Sands, Early Morning (1824), and Turner certainly painted a substantial number of works in Hastings in the early 19th century, this beauty is on show until the 4th of September, and looks much better in reality, of course, plus many other works that include scenes from Hastings, mostly, including works by William Henry Borrow, W Yale, William George Moss and John Cole. 

Visit the Museum & Art Gallery and you'll find much more too, enjoy!

Hastings Museum update

Always worth visiting the Museum and Art Gallery up Bohemia Road, and some very interesting exhibits and talks coming along too... Eg, tomorrow, Saturday 12th March, County Archaeologist, Caspar Johnson, is giving a talk "Hastings from Prehistory to Saxons", starting at 2pm (tickets £3, available in advance at the Museum Reception). 

Of course, the regular exhibits are still there, including memories of the 1960s clashes in Hastings between the Mods and Rockers, our very own native american Hastinger, Grey Owl aka Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, plus the Art Gallery, which currently has an exhibition of Sussex coastal scenes, "All at Sea".   

JMW Turner: Fishmarket on the Sands

Our own Turner: Hastings Fishmarket on the Sands isn't on view though, but will be returning the week commencing 20th June. For further information, see the website.

Turner back on Show in Hastings

I hadn't visited the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery (website) in Bohemia Road for quite a while, but wanted to know when they were going to exhibit their (or our's really) Turner water-colour of Hastings Fish Market, so was very lucky to discover today, that it had just been added to the current "All at Sea" exhibition in the Long Gallery!

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery

There was a piece of luck! They were literally just checking the security alarm and fittings as I turned up, as it has replaced 2 smaller pieces... The All at Sea exhibition in that long gallery features water-colour and oil paintings, plus a few pen & ink drawings and sketches, of marine vessels and Sussex coastal scenes. What is very noticeable, from the works of art on show, is that Hastings, and the local fishing industry in particular, has been very busy over the last few centuries! 

 Turner: Fish Market on the Sands

Joseph Mallard William Turner (1775-1851) is the best known of the watercolourists I wrote about a couple of months ago, who regularly painted in, and of, Hastings in the early 19th century. His 'Fish Market on the Sands' (1824) has to be the most significant of the 19th century water-colours on show here, but there are other water-colours too, including a couple painted by Richard Henry Nibbs from Brighton (1816-1893).  

Williams: Misty Morning 

There are more oil paintings than water-colours present in the exhibition, including 'Misty Morning' (1856) by Walter Williams (1835-1906), 'Rescue at Hastings' (1814) by William George Moss, and 'Hastings from the East Cliff' (1881) by William Henry Borrow.    

 Borrow: Hastings from the East Cliff

William Henry Borrow (1840-1905) was born and bred in Hastings, and I noted 4 works of art by him in the room, but I particularly like this view from the East Cliff, with the then recently built Hastings Pier in the background.  

There are also 20th century artists on show, a couple of excellent 18th century pen & ink drawings (one with water-colour too) by Joseph Barrington (1747-1821), notably 'Hastings Fishermen' (1785), apparently set below the East Cliff, and a number of sketches by Samuel Prout (1783-1852), who was also mentioned in the 19th Century Watercolourists blog in January; Prout lived in George Street from 1836 to 1845.     

 Lancaster: Marine Parade

I'm leaving comment about this oil painting to last, the enigmatic 'Marine Parade' by Richard Hume Lancaster (1773-1853). I looked at the inner frame, and the provenance from that looks quite dodgy, which I discussed with the Curator, Cathy Walling (I think it was, if I'm incorrect, apologies to her and whoever it was!). This provides 2 pieces of suspect information, that this was painted in 1818, and it was exhibited at the Royal Academy that same year. The museum obviously has doubts too, with the painting catalogued as painted in 1825. 

Now, I have quite an interest in St Mary in the Castle, and Pelham Crescent, and shall be writing about them soon too. Pelham Crescent is very obvious in this painting, yet the building of Pelham Crescent did not begin until 1824, and wasn't finished until 1828 at the earliest, indeed, the buildings to the west of St Mary in the Castle definitely were not completed by 1825... So, one can only guess that an early seller of this painting fabricated its provenance a wee bit for pecuniary reasons!      

Whatever, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, my first viewing of the Turner, which I love, obviously, many other interesting and beautiful works of art, and what a wonderful delight the whole 'Marine Parade' enigma is, I truly like the painting, and it's a real poser regarding the history of the painting... 

Quality... With many thanks to the Museum! 

19th Century Watercolourists in Hastings

Sorry for not publishing anything over the weekend, but I've just got back from a visit t' frozen north this evening, visiting friends, football etc, so here's another of my Hastings Independent articles, slightly amended, for your perusal... 

For nearly 10 years in the mid-19th century, West Hill House became a meeting place for many well-known artists, including J. M. W. Turner, William Henry Hunt, Samuel Prout, David Cox, William Collingwood and Peter de Wint, whilst the entrepreneur, collector and philanthropist, John Hornby Maw, himself an amateur artist, lived there. 

West Hill House

All of these artists had visited, sketched, and painted watercolours in Hastings earlier in the century, with the local fishing industry at the centre of their subject matter, so why did they return so often to the town? Well, the arrival of Maw was certainly a major factor, also, all these artists, including Maw, were members of the 'Society of Painters in Water Colours'.  

The Society had been formed early in the 19th century, when the Royal Academy was refusing to accept watercolour as a suitable medium for serious artistic expression. Although the Society folded due to financial problems in 1812, it was resurrected in 1831, whilst Maw was still living in London. 

Maw moved to Hastings in the late 1830s, and received tutoring here from de Wint, whilst the other artists already mentioned either came to stay with Maw or visited whilst they were staying elsewhere in Hastings, like Hunt, who regularly stayed at Rock a Nore. In the case of Prout, he had moved to George Street in Hastings because of ill health, arriving in 1836 following a pulmonary attack, until he finally left in 1845. 

David Cox: 

Fish Market on the Beach at Hastings

Maw's daughter, Anne, wrote that "Billy Hunt... stayed overlooking the fish market in humble lodgings" with his family from 1842 to 1849, that is, at the foot of the East Hill cliffs. Hunt wanted to be close to the subjects of his art, and most of his sketches and paintings are of the local people and their houses, the boats and net huts. Indeed, all the artists so far mentioned, and many others, painted similar subjects and, today, a number of early 19th century watercolours can be seen in the 'old town' museum in the High Street, eg Samuel Prout's 'East Cliffs' (1815). 

William Collingwood: 

An Antique Interior at West Hill House

Of 3 similar paintings of a woman indoors in West Hill House in the 1840s, that I am aware of, 2 are now with the Hastings Museum collection in Bohemia Road. Those in the collection are Maw's own 'Interior of West Hill House' (c.1842) and Hunt's 'West Hill House' (c.1846). The museum tried to purchase the third painting, by Collingwood, 'An Antique Interior at West Hill House' (1842), but lost out to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, where it can now be seen.  

J. M. W. Turner: Hastings: 

Fish Market on the Sands, Early Morning 

In 1849 the Maw family left Hastings for Devon, but these artists' legacy lives on, indeed, a large collection of 19th Century marine paintings of the Hastings area are part of the museum collection. Although not on show at the moment, having returned from abroad late last year, in 2006 the museum purchased Turner's 'Hastings: Fish Market on the Sands, Early Morning'. I am looking forward to seeing this painting again when it is next exhibited, probably in the spring!