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Lot Essay
One of the leading exponents of British impressionism and plein air painting, La Thangue was born at Croydon and received his formal education at Dulwich College before training as an artist at South Kensington, Lambeth, and the Royal Academy Schools. Stanhope Forbes, later the presiding genius of the Newlyn School, was a fellow pupil at Dulwich, Lambeth and the R.A. They maintained a somewhat guarded friendship but were deeply committed to the same ideals, and according to Forbes's fellow Newlyn artist, Norman Garstin, Forbes regarded La Thangue as having 'a considerable influence over him'. In 1879 La Thangue won the R.A's highest prize, the gold medal, and proceeded to Paris to study under Grme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, bearing a letter of recommendation from the President, Sir Frederic Leighton. Forbes and his friend Arthur Hacker entered Bonnart's studio at the same time, and in the summer of 1881 La Thangue and Forbes painted together in Brittany, experiencing the full rigours of working in the open air. They returned in 1882, but the following year La Thangue pursued his studies at Donzre, in the Rhone valley; according to his friend George Thomson, he had been 'seized with a desire to paint sunlight', but in fact ended up depicting 'the low-toned dwelling room of a poor French family, the blackest thing, he tells me, he ever painted' (Studio, vol.9, 1897, p.168). Like so many British artists currently under the sway of naturalism, including those contemporaries (Lavery, Stott of Oldham, Frank O'Meara, and others, who were working out their destinies at Grez-sur-Loing), La Thangue was inspired not so much by the Impressionists as by the Barbizon School and the most widely acclaimed prophet of naturalism, well known not only in France but in Britain, Jules Bastien-Lepage.
On his return to England La Thangue took a studio in Chelsea, then moved briefly to Norfolk before finally settling in Bosham on the Suffolk coast. Meanwhile, a relentless and single-minded worker, he was exhibiting widely at the R.A., Suffolk Street, the Grosvenor Gallery and its sucessor, the New Gallery. He was also involved in plans to set up the New English Art Club (1886), although his attempt to alter its constitution failed and he resigned. In 1896 he had a picture 'The Man with the Scythe' bought for the Chantry Bequest. Indeed his work, not surprisingly, is in many public collections. As George Thomson wrote, 'his success may be estimated when one considers what excellent exhibition pictures his works invariably make ... Except Mr Sargent, I can hardly recall any painter whose work looks so strong or so strikingly self-contained as his does upon the walls of a gallery' (op. cit., p.175).
During the first part of his career La Thangue focused on local subjects, and often chose scenes rich in social realism. About the turn of the century, however, he began to explore more appealing themes found in Provence and Liguria. The present example is one of two Ligurian subjects that he showed at the R.A. in 1906, and, according to the Illustrated London News, the more attractive. It was, the critic wrote, a more 'pleasure compelling' picture, 'for here Mr La Thangue's powers of selection seem to have crowded into one canvas all the specifically delightful accesories of an Italian scene; the well with its whitewashed walls, the well water, the flowers delicately cool in the shadow - the whole world of colour and contrasts'. Like all La Thangue's pictures, the canvas would have been painted entirely in the open air ('In many cases', wrote Thomson, 'the painter has not seen his works under a roof until the varnishing day at the Royal Academy'), and it brilliantly demonstrates that interest in strong sunlight that had been aroused in France more than twenty years earlier. It also shows La Thangue's devotion to the famous 'square brush' technique. According to Thomson, this was actually 'invented by La Thangue', and he claims 'most excellent authority' for his assertion. This is surely going too far since the method was widely used by British impressionists of all kinds and derives from the practice of Bastien-Lepage and others, but there is no doubt that La Thangue was one of its most consistent and enthusiastic exponents.
On his return to England La Thangue took a studio in Chelsea, then moved briefly to Norfolk before finally settling in Bosham on the Suffolk coast. Meanwhile, a relentless and single-minded worker, he was exhibiting widely at the R.A., Suffolk Street, the Grosvenor Gallery and its sucessor, the New Gallery. He was also involved in plans to set up the New English Art Club (1886), although his attempt to alter its constitution failed and he resigned. In 1896 he had a picture 'The Man with the Scythe' bought for the Chantry Bequest. Indeed his work, not surprisingly, is in many public collections. As George Thomson wrote, 'his success may be estimated when one considers what excellent exhibition pictures his works invariably make ... Except Mr Sargent, I can hardly recall any painter whose work looks so strong or so strikingly self-contained as his does upon the walls of a gallery' (op. cit., p.175).
During the first part of his career La Thangue focused on local subjects, and often chose scenes rich in social realism. About the turn of the century, however, he began to explore more appealing themes found in Provence and Liguria. The present example is one of two Ligurian subjects that he showed at the R.A. in 1906, and, according to the Illustrated London News, the more attractive. It was, the critic wrote, a more 'pleasure compelling' picture, 'for here Mr La Thangue's powers of selection seem to have crowded into one canvas all the specifically delightful accesories of an Italian scene; the well with its whitewashed walls, the well water, the flowers delicately cool in the shadow - the whole world of colour and contrasts'. Like all La Thangue's pictures, the canvas would have been painted entirely in the open air ('In many cases', wrote Thomson, 'the painter has not seen his works under a roof until the varnishing day at the Royal Academy'), and it brilliantly demonstrates that interest in strong sunlight that had been aroused in France more than twenty years earlier. It also shows La Thangue's devotion to the famous 'square brush' technique. According to Thomson, this was actually 'invented by La Thangue', and he claims 'most excellent authority' for his assertion. This is surely going too far since the method was widely used by British impressionists of all kinds and derives from the practice of Bastien-Lepage and others, but there is no doubt that La Thangue was one of its most consistent and enthusiastic exponents.