THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 
Henry Scott Tuke, R.A. (1858-1929)

Details
Henry Scott Tuke, R.A. (1858-1929)

Basking

signed and dated lower left H.S. Tuke 1885, oil on canvas
22 x 37¼in. (56 x 95cm.)
Literature
M. Tuke Sainsbury, Henry Scott Tuke A Memoir, London, 1933, pp.76-77
B.D. Price, The Registers of Henry Scott Tuke 1858-1929, Falmouth, 1983, ref.R57
Exhibited
London, N.E.A.C., Marlborough Gallery, First Exhibition, 1886, no.28
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 16th Autumn Exhibition, Sept.-Dec. 1886, no.150
Melbourne, Royal Art Society, Summer Exhibition, 1890 (not traced) London, Arthur Ackermann & Sons, The Pleasures of Observation, June 1990, no.15 as A Hot Summer's Day

Lot Essay

On 7 June 1885, Tuke left Paddington for Falmouth, and the next day moved to a cottage on the cliffs between Swanpool and Pennance Point. He took with him Walter Shilling from Kentish Town, a boy model at the Slade School.

The present work was painted on Newporth Beach over the summer months in tandem with a two other works, The Bathers and a fishing picture. Tuke recalled: 'I have another little fishing one for grey days and a lying down afternoon sunny one'. He remarked of his model for all the figures in the three pictures: 'There is great saving of time in having the same model and being able to work all pretty near together... Shilling is a good lad - I sometime tire of his company, and hate his cockneyisms worse and worse. He is pretty cheeky but we have to be very free in this kind of life'.
(see M. Tuke Sainsbury, loc. cit.)

Tuke eventually sold this painting for £35.

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