Blue Sea

Maker Joseph Edward Southall (British, 1861 - 1944)

Collections

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Date1897

Mediumwatercolor and gouache with white highlights and gum arabic binding on paper affixed to board

Dimensions11 1/2 x 9 1/8 in. (29.2 x 23.2 cm.)

DescriptionThis painting portrays a peaceful harbor with a few vessels. On the background is a hilly landscape.

SignedSigned and dated with monogram in lower right of recto: 18 [monogram] 97

InscribedSigned and dated with monogram in lower right of recto: 18 [monogram] 97 Inscribed in lower left of recto: Fowey. Stamped with Windsor & Newton's watercolor sketching board and company's address.

MarkingsStamped with Windsor & Newton's watercolor sketching board and company's address.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Art Collectors' Council, Boyd and Jean Higgins Art Collections Endowment, and Robert Wark Art Acquisition Endowment

Label TextSouthall was one of the leading practitioners of the tempera revival movement in late 19th-century Britain, which sought a return to traditional artistic techniques that required a deeper attention to craft, exemplified by the notoriously labor-intensive medium used during the Renaissance.
Though this charming seascape was likely painted with watercolor, rather then egg-based tempera, Southall has applied the pigment unconventionally to mimic the appearance of the older medium. Rather than working in thin washes of wet color, he applied multiple thin layers of dense, dry pigment with little water added, allowing him to attain extraordinary precision and intense opacity, qualities not usually associated with watercolors.

Status

On view

Object number2008.5