FDA-D.1719-2023

Parts

Object number

FDA-D.1719-2023

Object type

drawing

Identification

Title

Le Havre
Lisbon

Title Type

assigned by artist
Previous title

Description

Painted landscape view of rowboats and figures in the foreground; sailboats and buildings in the background

Comments

These two works by Frank H. Mason were undoubtedly inherited by Richard Amis from his family. Mason was commissioned by the Booth Steamship Company to produce advertising images. Richard Amis has annotated the back of the frame of one of these works to suggest that both were made to illustrate a Booth Steamship Line calendar. This may be the calendar advertised in the London Evening Standard on 3 January 1911: ‘The well-known Booth Steamship Line have issued an attractive easel calendar for 1911, containing twelve excellent reproductions in colours of Mr Frank H. Mason’s charming pictures of Portugal, Galicia and Madeira, which give a good idea of the beautiful scenery on the Booth tours.’ The Booth directors commissioned Mason and the writerphotographer Walter Wood to travel to Galicia with the aim of producing publications to advertise their tours. Wood and Mason (accompanied by Mason’s wife) left Liverpool aboard the Ambrose on 11 October 1909 and travelled for a month. A book titled A Corner of Spain, written by Wood and illustrated by Mason, was also published in 1910.

Description

Dimensions

height (actual size): 158mm
width (actual size): 318mm

Inscription

signed lower left: 'Frank H. Mason'; inscribed on verso: ‘Havre’

Material

paper
watercolour

Materials & techniques note

watercolour on paper

Production

Person

Mason, Frank Henry, 1875 - 1965 (Artist)

Date

c.1909

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