FDA-D.1712-2023
Parts
Object number
FDA-D.1712-2023
Object type
Identification
Title
Fishing Boats
Title Type
Common name
Description
Painted view of fishing boats with sails in a harbour; portrait orientation
Comments
Lilian Russell Bell was born Mary Lilian Russell in Huyton, Lancashire, the eldest daughter of a watch manufacturer. She studied at Herkomer’s Art School in Hertfordshire and later on the continent. Throughout the 1890s she was based in Liverpool, where she began exhibiting at the Walker Art Gallery under the name Lilian Russell. In 1899 she married Oswald Notman Bell, a stockbroker, and from then exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery as Mrs Lilian R. Bell. The couple lived in Wallasey, Cheshire (now Merseyside), where their three children were born, before relocating to Muswell Hill in London. Lilian exhibited works in oils, pastel and pencil, but she was predominantly a watercolourist. Unusually, she continued to exhibit after the birth of her children, mostly scenes of rural life or views of fishing boats. Bell painted fishing ports in Cornwall, Scotland and North Yorkshire, but made repeated visits to the port of Peel, on the Isle of Man. Her studies of fishing vessels in Peel harbour seem to relate to this example.
Description
Dimensions
height (actual size): 426mm
width (actual size): 341mm
width (actual size): 341mm
Inscription
Signed lower right: 'Lillian Russell'
Material
watercolour
paper
paper
Materials & techniques note
Watercolour on paper
Production
Person
History and association
Object history note
Provenance: Collection of Richard Henry Allen Amis (K.S. 1945-50; 1932-2018); by whom bequeathed to Eton College
Exhibited: 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024
Exhibited: 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024
