The embarkation

Details

Philip Wilson Steer, O.M. (1860-1942)
The embarkation
signed and dated 'P.Wilson Steer.1900' (lower left)
oil on canvas
21½ x 27 in. (54.5 x 68.5 cm.)

Provenance

Sir C.K. Butler.
Barbizon House, London, 1937.
G.J. Scaramanga.
with Arthur Tooth & Son, London, 1963, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

B. Laughton, Philip Wilson Steer 1860-1945, Oxford, 1971, no. 247. J. Munro (Intro.), Philip Wilson Steer 1860-1942 Paintings and Watercolours, catalogue for the exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1986, p. 46.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The present work is a second version of The Embarkment which was given by the artist to his friend, John Singer Sargent (Manchester City Art Gallery). The location is Knaresborough in North Yorkshire. The version belonging to Sargent had been considered an 'outrage' when it had been exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1900, and its capricious handling 'little more than the uneasy labouring after an easy technique' (The Speaker, November 1900, Vol. III, p. 201). The present work, was a more smoothly-painted version of the same theme, inspired by the work of Adolphe Monticello (1824-1886) whom Steer admired and whose paintings he collected.

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