1914, oil on canvas, 127×121.9cm
Inscription: monogram and date b.r.: ‘FB 1914’.
Provenance: Barbizon House; USA; private collection UK.
Exhibited: Barbizon House, 1926, Cat 4. FAS, 2006, cat 30.
Lit and Ill: Barbizon House Record, 1926. Horner, 2006, p72-75.
Scaffolding of boat building right, porters with fish foreground left. Bright painting with blue cloudy sky, white shirts of workers and fishermen, with touches of red and yellow.
Setting appears rather contrived with boat building and fishermen in same scene.
The Barbizon House record noted that: ‘There is a fine massive confusedness in this remarkable painting. The busy scene is filled with the movement of many strong figures, some occupied with the ephemeral passing of the fish-catch of the morning, while others are equally busy with the more permanent building of a good ship of the future. The artist has aimed at producing a grandly decorative scheme showing the scaffolding reaching to the ribs of the vessel and the active movement of the workers in full swing, each absorbed in his own labour’.
Image courtesy Liss Llewellyn.