Fishing boats aground, at low tide.

It is really surprising to find a signed artwork in a flea market that could perfectly be exhibited in a museum. On 10 July 2020, just 10 days before I was to leave the UK, I found this antique oil painting on board at one of the stalls in Portobello Road Market. Painted in a style that could be described as "British Impressionism", the artwork measures 404 x 302 mm.

Grounded sailboats at low tide. Oil on board by E. Clark.

The signature "E. Clark', lower left, recalls that of a British painter named Ernest Ellis Clark (1869-1932). Clark sometimes signed his oil paintings on canvas and on panel in this way, preceding his surname with the initial of his first name. 

Clark was born in Derby, England, and he worked as an artist for The Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Company, one of the oldest remaining English porcelain manufacturers, and as an Art Master at Derby Technical College. Clark is the author of a book, A Handbook of Plant Form (B. T. Batford, London, 1905), aimed at design students. 

As an artist, Clark was awarded the National Silver Medal in Ornament and Design. Some of his paintings, gifted by art collector Alfred E. Goodey, are currently on display at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery (Allard, Sarah; Nicola Rippon: Goodey's Derby. Paintings and Drawing in the Collection of Derby Museum & Art Gallery, The Breedon Books Publishing Co, Derby, 2003, p. 157).

At low tide, in a probably British harbour which I have not been able to identify -scenes like this were common in Scottish ports during low tide-, several 19th century fishing schooners and some rowing boats are beached on the sand. In the distance we can see another vessel still afloat at sea but with the sails already folded. In the background, the harbour docks and some warehouses on the quay. The mist, in the distance, merges the sea horizon with the sky.

 

The scene is painted with great skill, the atmospheric effect of the cloudy sky softening the shadows, the reflection of the masts on the water, the boats aground in the sea mud... No human figures appear in the painting, which helps to produce an effect of calm and stillness, waiting for the tide to rise and the sailors to set sail again.

The type of fishing boats depicted in the painting are similar to the vessels depicted in Eugène Atget's photographs, late 19th century. The MOMA keeps a gelatin silver print by the French photographer, entitled La Rochelle, Bateaux and dated 1896, with fishing schooners moored in the sand similar to those in our painting.

La Rochelle, Bateaux (1896), by Atget. MOMA.

This "Fishing boats aground, at low tide" wasn't the only marine painting I found in my last weeks in Britain. 

Our next artwork here is "On the Scheld", an original pencil drawing on oval watercolour background, dated 1856, and after a work by Clarkson Stanfield. Its size (oval) is 151 x 156 mm. I acquired it at the Portobello Road market on June 19, 2020.

Despite its age, visible in the artwork, the drawing has been preserved over time in excellent condition. If someone keeps a drawing throughout his life it is because the object, or the person who drew it, has a special significance for him. But if their successors, approximately 6 generations, keep that sketch in good condition for more than 160 years, it is undoubtedly because that artwork has some worth for them. Most of the time that value is associated with the hand that executed the artwork. In our case, that hand is a mystery, because the drawing wasn't signed. By contrast, it was titled and dated in pencil on the back of the paper, "Nos 2. On the Sheld. March 29th 1856".

 

According to the title of the drawing, this is a scene on the Schelde River in Belgium. But the title also refers to a painting by Clarkson Stanfield RA (1793 - 1867), "On the Scheld near Leiskenshoeck: a Squally Day" (1837), which is preserved at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

There is a second painting by this same artist, View on the Scheld (1837), which is kept in the V&A Museum. Although actually the drawing was not directly inspired by Clarkson Stanfield 's paintings, but was made from an illustration from the Heath's Picturesque Annual for 1833, a publication with engravings from drawings by well-known artists.

On the Scheld. Engraving by Robert William Wallis after a painting by Clarkson Stanfield.

Leitch Ritchie (1800-1865) was a Scottish journalist and writer. In his early work in London the English book publisher, illustrator and engraver Charles Heath (1785-1848) commissioned two series of travel books from him, Turner's Annual Tour (1833-5), and the previously mentioned Heath's Picturesque Annual (1832-45). Through this commission, Ritchie visited many places abroad, and the result was twelve illustrated volumes.

 

The engraving from which this drawing was made originally appeared in Leitch Ritchie's 'Travelling Sketches on the Rhine, and in Belgium and Holland', p. 226. The British Museum in London holds an artist's proof of this engraving (Museum number: 1894,0417.404).

The description of the engraving says as follows: "View across river with boats, windmills on bank at left, the spire of a distant town in the background". In the inscription of the engraving, the artists involved in the production are listed. The engraver was Robert William Wallis, after a painting by Clarkson Stanfield, and it was printed by McQueen & Co.

 

The sketch found at Portobello Road is interesting because it is fairly antique, 1856, because it shows a fine technique by a skilled hand and, above all, because it gives us a clue to our next artwork, also found in the flea market. Interestingly, this sketch in pencil was piled up next to an antique original unsigned watercolour which also recalls Clarkson Stanfield, hence both artworks were probably made by some novel artist during his learning process.

The watercolour here was untitled and undated. It looks as antique as the sketch, and it depicts some sailing ships in troubled waters. Clarkson Stanfield was a master in depicting this kind of maritime scenes with troubled waters, which gave the composition a sense of movement and drama. In those years Stanfield was a very well known and admired painter, at the height of his artistic career.

Watercolour purchased at Portobello Rd. Market, 19th June 2020.

 

Tilbury Fort. Wind against tide (1849), by Clarkson Frederick Stanfield.

Another artist who painted similar scenes was Edward William Cooke, also academician at the RA.

 

Up Channel (1853) by Edward William Cooke RA.

 

Another seascape I found in Portobello Road after the lockdown (27th June 2020) was a watercolour on paper depicting a fishing boat near the cliffs, probably off the coast of Mullaghmore in County Sligo, Ireland, although the artwork does not offer any clues. It is neither signed nor dated, nor does it have a title.

 

Fishing boat off the cliffs of Mullaghmore, Ireland (Anonymous).

Behind these rocks, not far away, Classiebawn Castle can be seen, where Lord Mountbatten used to spend his summer holydays. On August 27, 1979, an IRA member blew up the boat carrying Mountbatten and several members of his family. Some of them died along with Mountbatten.

I still found one more nautical painting, a miniature on a thin panel, signed REB.

Also related to the sea is this other original watercolour on paper, "Ipswich Docks", by Austen Clarke (c. 1960). The artwork is signed, and the title is written in a label on the back. I purchased this artwork at Portobello Rd Market (Golborne stall) on June 5, 2020, the first Friday of market after lockdown. 

 

The image shown in the watercolour is that of Ipswich waterfront (Neptune Marina) viewed from Neptune Pier and looking to Waterfront House, a six-storey former maltings building, today Ashtons Legal building.

I will close this post with two old oil paintings on canvas that I found some time later, in the spring of 2022, at an open-air flea market in Madrid. The artwork, Boats on river Jerte, in Plasencia (circa 1945), was painted and signed by the Spanish artist Julio Rabazo. He was a painter from Plasencia, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. He moved in the artistic circles of the Spanish post-Civil War period, taking part in various national Fine Arts exhibitions. Julio Rabazo is uncle of the award-winning artist Alejandro Rabazo. We know Julio Rabazo ended up teaching at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts until at least the early 1980s. He is listed in the minutes of the painting competition held by the Official Association of Architects and Technical Architects of Madrid in 1982 and 1983 as a member of the jury that awarded the prizes.

Boats on river Jerte, in Plasencia (c. 1945), by Julio Rabazo. 24 x 35 cm.

The art historian and professor at the University of Granada, Lola Caparrós Masegosa, mentions Julio Rabazo in her book Instituciones artísticas del franquismo: Las exposiciones nacionales de Bellas Artes, 1941-1968 (Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, Zaragoza 2019, page 168), as being the author of a letter in the newspaper El Alcázar requesting the medal of honour of the Fine Arts for the recently deceased painter José Gutiérrez Solana. Two days after his death, on 26 June 1945, the art critic, writer and journalist Manuel Sánchez-Camargo had published an article in El Alcázar urging those aspiring to the medal to renounce their right in favour of the deceased painter: "We write these lines to the artists. For them and only for them we ask that those aspiring to the medal of honour make public their withdrawal and ask that by acclamation this honour be awarded posthumously to the exemplary companion (...) Many will join in your gesture...". Rabazo's letter was published in El Alcázar on 29 June 1945, together with another one by renowned painter Benjamín Palencia, both in support of the awarding of the highest Fine Arts prize to Gutiérrez Solana. Another supporter was the famous Spanish writer and playwright Enrique Jardiel Poncela. This means that Rabazo was a painter who was well regarded in the Spanish art scene at the time. The jury awarded the medal of honour posthumously to Gutiérrez Solana on 13 July of that year. 

The other painting I found at the same flea market and around the same time was Seascape with sail fishing boats, a signed oil on canvas. The painting came from a storage room that had been closed for about 30 years. The lot included numerous sketches from life and drawings made in France. Its author was probably a student painter at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, located in Alcalá Street in Madrid. The canvas still bears the stamp of "La Paleta Española", an old shop located at 17 Augusto Figueroa Street, that used to sell oil colours and tempera, easels and stretcher frames, and was frequented by students of the nearby Royal Academy, just 10 minutes from the shop. The name was subsequently changed to "Bellas Artes", which allows us to date the canvas to around the middle of the 20th century. The scene depicted is probably located on the French coast, although it could also be in the Basque Country.

Seascape with sail fishing boats (c. 1950), signed oil on canvas. 37 x 31 cm.

On our next journey we will leave the sea and go inland, through an interesting British artist who will take us to Northern Ireland.