FDA-D.1703-2023
Parts
Object number
FDA-D.1703-2023
Object type
Identification
Title
Rowing Out - Fishing Boats in the English Channel
Title Type
Common name
Description
Painted landscape view of a shipping scene, with figures in a rowboat and a buoy at the centre, a sailboat beyond, further boats on the horizon
Comments
This view shows fishermen rowing out to board their vessel. It is inscribed on the back ‘Bateau pecheur’ (fishing boat), indicating that it was probably made early in the artist’s career, when Callow was living in France and devoted to learning and using the French language.
Adding a small rowing boat to the foreground of marine views was a compositional device favoured by Callow. He often added fishermen heading towards their moored vessel, returning to land or sometimes dragging fishing nets. Here, three fishermen return to their vessel. They seem so close to the viewer that we are almost transported into the small boat with them. This watercolour bears the collector’s mark of Alfred Beurdeley (1847–1919), a significant collector who owned works by Francesco Guardi, Antoine Watteau, Thomas Gainsborough
and James McNeill Whistler.
Adding a small rowing boat to the foreground of marine views was a compositional device favoured by Callow. He often added fishermen heading towards their moored vessel, returning to land or sometimes dragging fishing nets. Here, three fishermen return to their vessel. They seem so close to the viewer that we are almost transported into the small boat with them. This watercolour bears the collector’s mark of Alfred Beurdeley (1847–1919), a significant collector who owned works by Francesco Guardi, Antoine Watteau, Thomas Gainsborough
and James McNeill Whistler.
Description
Dimensions
height (actual size): 229mm
width (actual size): 305mm
width (actual size): 305mm
Inscription
Signed lower right: 'W. Callow.'; stamped lower left with collector's mark; inscribed on verso: ‘Bateau pecheur / a l’an[…]’
Material
paper
watercolour
watercolour
Materials & techniques note
Watercolour on paper
Production
Person
Date
c.1840
History and association
Object history note
Provenance: Collection of Alfred Beurdeley (1847–1919); ‘Maritime and Naval Battles’, Christie’s, South Kensington, 9 November 2000, Lot 432, as ‘In the Chanel’, bought in; Agnew's, London, 2002; from whom purchased by Richard Amis; collection of Richard Henry Allen Amis (K.S. 1945-50; 1932-2018); by whom bequeathed to Eton College
Exhibited: 'Watercolours & Drawings; 129th Annual Exhibition’, Agnew’s, London, 13 February to 8 March 2002; 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024
Exhibited: 'Watercolours & Drawings; 129th Annual Exhibition’, Agnew’s, London, 13 February to 8 March 2002; 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024
