Boating at Remenham

Boating at Remenham is one of a group of oil studies painted along the Thames around 1930. Pleasure boating (see Summertime, lot 37) now hugely popular in the age of the motor car, continued to hold enormous attractions for a painter who had never been afraid of working in crowds. It relates closely to the large unfinished On the Thames at Remenham in the configuration of pleasure boats and in the foreground and trees on the far bank or island in the upper right. Since Remenham is nearer Henley than Hampton Court, we may dispute the location of the present work, the inscription and dating of which is not thought to be autograph. Elsewhere, the handling closely relates to other works of the period, and details such as the fact that pleasure boats now were sporting sun awnings, confirm the approximate correctness of the dating around 1930.
K.M.