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Lot Essay
Richard Eurich’s affinity with the sea is apparent in this major painting which dates from his mid-career. He describes the swell of the storm-tossed sea perfectly with his choice of palette and application of paint, and also the manner in which the many vessels endeavour to make headway against the conditions. A lighthouse keeper watches the scene from on high, but the artist has adopted a higher viewpoint still, endowing the painting with a sense of vertiginous peril. Adults and children gather on the harbour wall to experience the thrill of the storm and to observe the boats and ships as they struggle against the waves. A fisherman’s nets are hung upon the wall, unlikely to dry until the storm has passed. Weak sunshine illuminates the foreground, while the high horizon is dark with ominous clouds – is the storm passing or is it gathering strength? The artist has made skilful use of red, rapidly guiding the viewer’s eye around the painting and back as if driven by the powerful wind.
Richard Eurich’s career took off during the 1930s. Not only was he commercially successful in the domestic art market, he was invited in successive years to represent Great Britain at a prestigious international exhibition in Pittsburgh, USA. Early in the Second World War he was appointed an Official War Artist to the Admiralty, and in 1942 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. In the years that succeeded the War, however, he found difficulty in selling his work due to a variety of reasons, including the swing in public taste towards abstract art. Ironically, paintings from this period are now among his most popular and command high prices when they come to auction. Several have found their way into major collections, including Coast Scene with Rainbow, 1952-1953, that belongs to the Government Art Collection and which also depicts a harbour in a storm, though from an entirely different perspective. Eurich’s paintings are always intelligent, well composed and with skilful use of colour, and in addition they display an exceptional attention to detail, qualities that satisfy both the art critic and members of the public who know what they like.
This work will appear in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Richard Eurich being prepared by Christine Clearkin.
We are very grateful to Christine Clearkin for preparing this catalogue entry.
Richard Eurich’s career took off during the 1930s. Not only was he commercially successful in the domestic art market, he was invited in successive years to represent Great Britain at a prestigious international exhibition in Pittsburgh, USA. Early in the Second World War he was appointed an Official War Artist to the Admiralty, and in 1942 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. In the years that succeeded the War, however, he found difficulty in selling his work due to a variety of reasons, including the swing in public taste towards abstract art. Ironically, paintings from this period are now among his most popular and command high prices when they come to auction. Several have found their way into major collections, including Coast Scene with Rainbow, 1952-1953, that belongs to the Government Art Collection and which also depicts a harbour in a storm, though from an entirely different perspective. Eurich’s paintings are always intelligent, well composed and with skilful use of colour, and in addition they display an exceptional attention to detail, qualities that satisfy both the art critic and members of the public who know what they like.
This work will appear in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Richard Eurich being prepared by Christine Clearkin.
We are very grateful to Christine Clearkin for preparing this catalogue entry.