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!