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Lot Essay
One of Tuke's early works, this is probably the picture entitled Ship Builders that Tuke submitted to the first exhibition of the Nineteenth Century Art Society in Conduit Street. The Society had been started by R. S. Marriott and W. G. Freeman to show the work of younger artists who they felt had not been well treated by a reactionary Royal Academy. Tuke's picture received a favourable review in the Standard, and was bought for 50 guineas (less a 10 discount) by the leading dealer C.W. Dowdeswell. It was the beginning of a long and profitable association.
Tuke was raised in Falmouth, and had a life-long love of the sea. He was awarded the Slade scholarship in 1877 which enabled him to study in Paris in the atelier of Laurens, an experience that inflected his technique. There he also became friends with John Singer Sargent. The early death of his brother hastened a return to England, and in 1883 he made the first of several visits to Newlyn to stay with his friends Thomas and Carrie Cooper Gotch. The present picture was one of only two large works that he completed on that visit. He found his subject in a scruffy little boy, with a strong Cornish accent, who carried the exotic name of Ambrose Rouffignac. Tuke painted him in the tackle cellar under the house (hence the low light level) making a model schooner watched by a girl named Sarah Ann Stevenson. Both were to be employed as models in later works.
Tuke was raised in Falmouth, and had a life-long love of the sea. He was awarded the Slade scholarship in 1877 which enabled him to study in Paris in the atelier of Laurens, an experience that inflected his technique. There he also became friends with John Singer Sargent. The early death of his brother hastened a return to England, and in 1883 he made the first of several visits to Newlyn to stay with his friends Thomas and Carrie Cooper Gotch. The present picture was one of only two large works that he completed on that visit. He found his subject in a scruffy little boy, with a strong Cornish accent, who carried the exotic name of Ambrose Rouffignac. Tuke painted him in the tackle cellar under the house (hence the low light level) making a model schooner watched by a girl named Sarah Ann Stevenson. Both were to be employed as models in later works.