Fig 9.Thomas Bush Hardy (1842-1897), Dutch Trawlers in the North Sea, signed, inscribed and dated 1895, watercolour and bodycolour with scratching out, 12.75 x 20in. £1,900,April 2014. Hardy was not at his best in the 1890s (it was a decade beset by alcohol problems) but he has focused his skills very well here. In general, the 1860s and 1870s were his best decades. Fakes abound, probably because the quality of his work was so variable.

Fig 10. Julius Olsson (1864-1942), Moonlit Surf, signed, c.1919, oil on canvas, 18 x 24in. £3,580,April 2014. Olsson’s innate understanding of the subtle interplay between sky, water and light was exemplary. His seascapes catch the eye and hold the attention: they are pictures in which to immerse oneself, almost like pictorial poems.

STANDPOINT Figures 9 and 2 are very different from each other: different in medium, size, content and colour. It is relevant to compare them only because of where the artist stood. In figure 3, we feel that Hardy was at sea as the trough of water is like a basin immediately before us, drawing us into the scene. Redmore (fig 9), however, has kept his feet drier on a shoreline and we do not feel that he was on the water when he painted this. Hardy’s sea is seen on an overcast and

22

squally autumnal day where the sky and the water seem to be the same colour. Redmore’s sky offers just enough blue to `make a sailor a pair of pants` but his waters are rolling ominously.We are on a bleak Yorkshire coast here and the strong currents are making the sea caramel with churning sand from its bed. Here the rocks tell only of danger and hazard: that vessel could not hope to come through safely if winds bring it ashore and a broken mast in the foreground indicates how other mariners have lost their lives off this coast in the past.Victorian collectors loved marine pictures where the threats of nature could be observed from the comfort of a drawing room. In such scenes they could imagine the heroic valour of brave sailors but nowadays buyers are less enamoured of such evocations of death and disaster. Is the artist merely observing or actually confronting the sea? Does his standpoint contribute to the atmosphere or drama of the picture? Has he considered carefully the best angle from which to assess his subject?

HUES AND MOODS Figures 1 and 6 offer very different glimpses of the wild wide ocean. In figure 1, John Robertson Reid’s view of a peaceful Cornish cove and a fresh and calm day shows the sea to be an idyllic pale blue whilst John Falconar Slater’s greenish brown waters on the North East coast (fig 6) foretell very much rougher weather.We all learn that the sea reflects the colour of the sky above it but the satisfied contentment of Reid’s Cornish fishermen would be very different if the poor men were about to head out into Slater’s foaming, writhing ocean. Is the most obvious mood of the picture the one that you want? Has the artist used colour, technique and composition to encapsulate the mood he sought? Do the artist’s colour choices indicate a really observant eye?

TIME OF DAY In figure 3, David James’s breaking waves have elegant majesty rather than anything of the sinister surge of figure 6.The artist’s use of blue in the sky and the water is so bright and clear that one can almost smell the tang of salty sea air in the nostrils. It is an invigorating scene, captured in the dazzling light of a sunny summer day.The waters are not that much calmer in figure 10, but Julius Olsson has made a much more serene and relaxing composition in softer twilight tones.We are not standing so close to the water’s edge and the elevation lifts us above the roar of the tide but the soft cast of moon light contributes enormously to the mood. Is the time of day should be immediately apparent? Remember that twilight subjects can sometimes be too dimly lit to be easy to appreciate. Remember that the nature of the light always effects the colour of the water and an observant artist should be able to capture this.