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Lot Essay
Typical of Hemy's later work, this picture carries the artist's hallmarks of placing the horizon high up the canvas, and disecting the composition with the ship's mast. This, and taking liberties with perspective, enabled him to heighten the sense of drama, and lead the eye to details such as the bubbles floating in the wake of the rudder, or the keel cutting through the clear green water.
Hemy's development was complex. Born in Newcastle he entered the local School of Design in 1852, encountering William Bell Scott, who was then the Master. He subsequently studied for the priesthood at Ushaw College, and spent nearly three years in a Domenican monastery, before deciding to paint for a living. Initially he studied the works of Millais, Holman Hunt, Madox Brown and Dyce, and this, together with his reading of Ruskin, led him to paint in a Pre-Raphaelite style. By the mid 1860s he was painting landscapes under the influence of George Pinwell, Fred Walker and J W North however, and it was only after his return to England in 1870, following a spell in Antwerp, that he developed his mature style, a bold painterly technique almost exclusively applied to marine subjects.
Hemy's development was complex. Born in Newcastle he entered the local School of Design in 1852, encountering William Bell Scott, who was then the Master. He subsequently studied for the priesthood at Ushaw College, and spent nearly three years in a Domenican monastery, before deciding to paint for a living. Initially he studied the works of Millais, Holman Hunt, Madox Brown and Dyce, and this, together with his reading of Ruskin, led him to paint in a Pre-Raphaelite style. By the mid 1860s he was painting landscapes under the influence of George Pinwell, Fred Walker and J W North however, and it was only after his return to England in 1870, following a spell in Antwerp, that he developed his mature style, a bold painterly technique almost exclusively applied to marine subjects.