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Lot Essay
Bruce Laughton comments that the present work is, 'painted in luminous colours, modulated on a limited scale of pink, cerulean-blue, black and cream. The paint is applied thinly and broadly, and convincingly relates to the artist's visual sensations on the spot. The figures are placed against the light, silhouetted against a wide expanse of beach and water' (see B. Laughton, op. cit., p. 11).
Andrew Forge discusses the Étaples pictures in the 1960 Arts Council Exhibition catalogue, 'However scanty Steer's contacts with French painting the fact remains that he was soon producing pictures of an extraordinary precocity. The Étaples pictures of the summer of 1887, although they owe a great deal to Whistler and through him to the Japanese, strike an entirely original note ... with extreme economy and self-conscious and slightly mannered drawing on the flat, to anticipate Nabi painting of ten years later' (see 1960 Exhibition catalogue, p. 7). The present work, and it's companion picture Fisher Children, Étaples (private collection, London), are discussed in the 1986 Arts Council exhibition catalogue, 'it is painted in pale tones, laid on in wide bands of thin colour, with touches of creamy impasto to indicate the breaking surf. This slightness of handling points to the influence of Whistler, whose work Steer could have known from as early as 1878-9, and from a series of major exhibitions held in London and Paris between 1883 and 1886. Further stimulus may have come from his close contact with Sickert in 1885-6, who, though beginning to show the influence of Degas in his work, still declared himself to be a pupil of Whistler. The restricted range of soft colours, brilliant intuitive balance of compositional elements, and a fluency of handling perfectly convey the mood of late summer afternoon' (see Exhibition catlogue, Arts Council of Great Britain, Philip Wilson Steer, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 30-31).
Andrew Forge discusses the Étaples pictures in the 1960 Arts Council Exhibition catalogue, 'However scanty Steer's contacts with French painting the fact remains that he was soon producing pictures of an extraordinary precocity. The Étaples pictures of the summer of 1887, although they owe a great deal to Whistler and through him to the Japanese, strike an entirely original note ... with extreme economy and self-conscious and slightly mannered drawing on the flat, to anticipate Nabi painting of ten years later' (see 1960 Exhibition catalogue, p. 7). The present work, and it's companion picture Fisher Children, Étaples (private collection, London), are discussed in the 1986 Arts Council exhibition catalogue, 'it is painted in pale tones, laid on in wide bands of thin colour, with touches of creamy impasto to indicate the breaking surf. This slightness of handling points to the influence of Whistler, whose work Steer could have known from as early as 1878-9, and from a series of major exhibitions held in London and Paris between 1883 and 1886. Further stimulus may have come from his close contact with Sickert in 1885-6, who, though beginning to show the influence of Degas in his work, still declared himself to be a pupil of Whistler. The restricted range of soft colours, brilliant intuitive balance of compositional elements, and a fluency of handling perfectly convey the mood of late summer afternoon' (see Exhibition catlogue, Arts Council of Great Britain, Philip Wilson Steer, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 30-31).