Coastal Scene with Shipping
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Research by Jacqueline Arundel
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Scene 1
Acc No 125
Artist E Myers
Artist dates active 1873
Date painted unknown
Medium watercolour
Size 12.7 x 33.cm (5 x 13 in)
Donor Emily Green, 1868-1951, 19 York Road,
Lytham St Annes
Date donated bequest 21 January 1952
Artist E Myers
Artist dates active 1873
Date painted unknown
Medium watercolour
Size 12.7 x 33.cm (5 x 13 in)
Donor Emily Green, 1868-1951, 19 York Road,
Lytham St Annes
Date donated bequest 21 January 1952
Scene 2
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Acc No 129
Artist E Myers Artist dates active 1873 Date painted 1873 Inscrip: (L.L.) 1873 Medium watercolour Size 13 x 33 cm (5.1 x 13 in) Donor Emily Green Date donated bequest 21 January 1952 Note: Both paintings are referred to as 'Coastal Scene' on the back Emily Green also donated 2 paintings by Edward Tucker Snr Lake District Scene, View of Dunmail Raise Lake District Scene, View of the Langdale Pikes |
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PAINTING Scene 1
This picture depicts a panoramic scene with three lateen rigged vessels sailing on the water whilst seagulls hover around them. The vessel on the left of the picture has lowered her foreyard and you can see the sail billowing on the deck. The vessel in the middle has her two yards across the boat and is running before the wind (i.e. the wind is behind the ship pushing it along). It has been said that as the vessels are lateen the painting is possibly set in the Mediterranean rather than on a lake (1). However, ‘Vevey’ is written in the bottom left hand corner, along with the signature and date. This painting was first sketched, as under drawing can be seen to the left of the closest (largest) sailing boat, and then painted with watercolours. A buoy bobs about in the waves near the shoreline, which is just visible in the foreground, adding depth to the painting, whilst in the distance you can see a misty mountain range. Writers, artists and intellectuals have long been attracted to Vevey, a town perched between one of the largest lakes in Western Europe, Lake Geneva (Lac Léman to the locals) and Mount Pélerin, Switzerland. 
Vevey, Switzerland, 2011,
by Mary Kay Bosshart, (2)
Coastal Scene with Shipping was painted in 1873, the same year that French Realist artist, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), went into exile approximately two kilometres along the coastal road from Vevey, at La Tour-de-Peilz. He had been imprisoned for his political activities during the Paris Commune. Courbet lived there until his death and painted views such as Beach Scene shown below.
Gustave Courbet ‘Beach Scene’, 1874, oil on canvas,
38 x 55.5 cm (15 x 22.9 in), National Gallery, London (3).
ARTIST
Currently little is known about the artist, E Myers, but research is on-going. What we have found is that there was a meeting in February 1867 at Birmingham Art Gallery and E Myers was an attendee.(findmypast.co.uk/papers and periodicals) The Manchester Weekly Times reported on 26 March 1874, when writing about the Waite's Exhibition of Water Colour in Manchester, "E. Myers, an artist hitherto unknown in Manchester sends some drawings of Scotch and Rhine scenery, which though somewhat hackneyed as to subject, are full of merit". artprice.com lists paintings by E Myers sold at auction but without illustrations of them: Folk on the Shoreline of Lake Maggiore 1876 -oil The Zoll Castle Pfalzgrafstein in the Rhine and Kaub - 4 watercolours Castle Ruins in the Rhine Valley Burg Reinstein Fortress Cartmel Sands 1874 |
REFERENCES
Michell, J, (2014), personal correspondence, 3rd October 2014, Curator of Historic Photographs and Ship Plans, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Sartin, S, (2001) Fylde Borough Collection of Works of Art, Catalogue No 5, Lancashire County Museum, available from http://www.lythamstannesartcollection.org/the-treasures.html Bibliography Images (1) Myers, E, Coastal Scene, The Lytham St Annes Art Collection, available @ http://www.lythamstannesartcollection.org/watercolours.html, (2) Bosshart, M K, (2011), photo of Vevey, Switzerland, available @ http://www.outandaboutinparis.com/2011/05/french-connection-vevey-switzerland.html (3) Courbet, G, 1874, Beach Scene, National Gallery, London, available @ http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/gustave-courbet-beach-scene |
