Shipping off Dover

When Carmichael painted this picture in 1857, he and his wife Mary were living in London; how many of their eight children would have been living at 12 St. Marks Crescent Regents Park Road, we cannot be sure, their two eldest daughters were married by then and their youngest was only thirteen years of age. Carmichael had moved from his native Newcastle upon Tyne in 1846, in his own words 'he wished to leave the provinces and make his fortune reat and his name immortal'. All his life he was to have problems with money and a painting of this size must have been an important commission. Soon after his arrival in London he painted a number of views around the south and south east of England and there are at least five views of Dover amongst his major works. With Carmichael's great attention to detail this painting shows the building of the Admiralty Pier, that was commenced in 1847 and completed in 1864 (and extended in 1897). To quote the Senior Assistant Curator of Dover Museum, 'The wooden frame and block-lifting crane on top appear in a number of paintings in our collection'. Here the artist illustrates all his skill in painting the sea and sky and it also contains many of the smaller, personal details that he loved to include in his compositions; the 'flotsam' as he called it, like the buoy with the resting seagull and the other swooping that so neatly fills the right hand corner. But it is to the fishing boat and the half completed Admiralty Pier (that would not be finished until seven years after this painting) that Carmichael wishes to draw our attention. One can feel the energy the fishermen are expending in bringing their boat back home and one of them wears the red woollen cap that this artist liked to add to one of his sailors. He also liked to introduce wherever possible other types of vessels and as he was especially interested in the change from steam to sail, he has added into the background, a ship steaming out of port.
We are very grateful to Diana Villar for providing us with this catalogue entry.