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Lot Essay
Fécamp, a commune in the northwestern department of Seine-Maritime in France, was a recurring and important motif for Tristram Hillier. He painted at least three views of this harbour in the later 1930s, all closely related to the present work. The port’s apparent geometry – found in converging breakwaters, upright masts and paired lighthouses, as well as the channel of water cutting cleanly through the composition – perfectly suited his instinct for order and controlled tension. The locale evidently had a lasting hold on the artist’s imagination, so much so that he returned to the subject again nearly a decade later.
Fécamp was among a group of works Hillier was forced to leave behind when he fled his house and studio in Normandy at the outbreak of WWII. With France under threat and invasion imminent, his departure was abrupt, and a number of finished canvases were abandoned to the house. They were later recovered and transported to London with considerable difficulty, only shortly before occupying troops ransacked the property. The present work thus survives as a testament not only to Hillier’s Normandy period but also to the precarious yet extraordinary circumstances of its preservation. It was subsequently included in his important 1946 exhibition at Arthur Tooth & Sons, his first with the gallery, originally scheduled for 1940 but postponed due to the war.
The vivid, enamel-like colour is highly characteristic of Hillier. The saturated turquoise of the water and the chalky, warm red of the bricks are intensified by his use of tempera, whose quick-drying and finely layered application made for crisp contours and a smooth, matte luminosity. The medium perfectly complements his meticulous technique, reinforcing the painting’s clarity, stillness and sense of suspended time, indeed a striking counterpoint to the turmoil that surrounded its execution.
Fécamp was among a group of works Hillier was forced to leave behind when he fled his house and studio in Normandy at the outbreak of WWII. With France under threat and invasion imminent, his departure was abrupt, and a number of finished canvases were abandoned to the house. They were later recovered and transported to London with considerable difficulty, only shortly before occupying troops ransacked the property. The present work thus survives as a testament not only to Hillier’s Normandy period but also to the precarious yet extraordinary circumstances of its preservation. It was subsequently included in his important 1946 exhibition at Arthur Tooth & Sons, his first with the gallery, originally scheduled for 1940 but postponed due to the war.
The vivid, enamel-like colour is highly characteristic of Hillier. The saturated turquoise of the water and the chalky, warm red of the bricks are intensified by his use of tempera, whose quick-drying and finely layered application made for crisp contours and a smooth, matte luminosity. The medium perfectly complements his meticulous technique, reinforcing the painting’s clarity, stillness and sense of suspended time, indeed a striking counterpoint to the turmoil that surrounded its execution.