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Lot Essay
'An exciting rediscovery from the height of Tuke's career, this painting has not been shown in Britain since the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1911, and was believed lost. The Edwardian era, up until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, saw the production of much of Tuke's finest work, culminating in that year with his election to full membership of the Royal Academy. During this period, Tuke exhibited at least one major bathing picture at the Academy each year, together with portraits and shipping subjects, and both his style and reputation were consolidated.
Although Tuke would put extra details and the finishing touches to his bathing paintings in the studio, photographic evidence exists to demonstrate that he worked on these canvases largely in the open air, accounting for their freshness of colour and the sparkling effects of sunlight on the sea and the naked flesh of his models. In this respect he remained true to the plein-air precepts of the Newlyn School, with which he had been linked earlier in his career. Gleaming Waters is set on Newporth Beach, a part-sandy, part-shingly beach close to Tuke's cliff-top home just south of Falmouth, which was accessible only by steep, over-grown paths, or by boat. Tuke recorded the topography of this picturesque beach so faithfully in his paintings that it is usually possible to identify the exact rocks depicted.
For this painting Tuke listed as his models Charlie Mitchell - his boatman, regular model, in later years virtually his general factotum; George Williams - younger son of close neighbours, then aged around fifteen; Maurice Clift - nephew of a family friend; and Ainsley Marks. Due to Tuke's habit of interchanging heads and bodies of his models in his paintings, it is not possible to identify each figure exactly, although the central (horizontal) figure is known to be a portrait of Maurice Clift.
Tuke is recognised as a leading exponent of what is now termed British Impressionism, with its emphasis of dazzling colour and light, and the exclusion of black from the palette. Gleaming Waters represents the pinnacle of his achievement, both in quality and size, being the largest work he ever painted. Within a few years, however, harsh reality had broken into this sundrenched idyll. All of Tuke's regular models were eventually called up during the First World War, and some were never to return, including Maurice Clift - here little more than a child playing at the shallow water's edge - who died of his wounds in France (see M.T. Sainsbury, op. cit., p. 160). Tuke continued to produce bathing subjects until the end of his life, but was aware that by the 1920s these paintings were perceived as anachronistic and repetitious. The apparent carefree innocence of the Edwardian age was gone forever' (Catherine Dinn, private correspondence).
We are grateful to Catherine Dinn for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Although Tuke would put extra details and the finishing touches to his bathing paintings in the studio, photographic evidence exists to demonstrate that he worked on these canvases largely in the open air, accounting for their freshness of colour and the sparkling effects of sunlight on the sea and the naked flesh of his models. In this respect he remained true to the plein-air precepts of the Newlyn School, with which he had been linked earlier in his career. Gleaming Waters is set on Newporth Beach, a part-sandy, part-shingly beach close to Tuke's cliff-top home just south of Falmouth, which was accessible only by steep, over-grown paths, or by boat. Tuke recorded the topography of this picturesque beach so faithfully in his paintings that it is usually possible to identify the exact rocks depicted.
For this painting Tuke listed as his models Charlie Mitchell - his boatman, regular model, in later years virtually his general factotum; George Williams - younger son of close neighbours, then aged around fifteen; Maurice Clift - nephew of a family friend; and Ainsley Marks. Due to Tuke's habit of interchanging heads and bodies of his models in his paintings, it is not possible to identify each figure exactly, although the central (horizontal) figure is known to be a portrait of Maurice Clift.
Tuke is recognised as a leading exponent of what is now termed British Impressionism, with its emphasis of dazzling colour and light, and the exclusion of black from the palette. Gleaming Waters represents the pinnacle of his achievement, both in quality and size, being the largest work he ever painted. Within a few years, however, harsh reality had broken into this sundrenched idyll. All of Tuke's regular models were eventually called up during the First World War, and some were never to return, including Maurice Clift - here little more than a child playing at the shallow water's edge - who died of his wounds in France (see M.T. Sainsbury, op. cit., p. 160). Tuke continued to produce bathing subjects until the end of his life, but was aware that by the 1920s these paintings were perceived as anachronistic and repetitious. The apparent carefree innocence of the Edwardian age was gone forever' (Catherine Dinn, private correspondence).
We are grateful to Catherine Dinn for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.