Lytham Sandhills
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Research by Sarah Kellam
Great Great Grand-daughter of Richard Ansdell |
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Acc No 76
Artist Richard Ansdell Artist dates 1825-1885 Medium oil on canvas (under glass) Size 53.3 x 149.9 cm (21 x 59 in) Date painted 1866 Inscr: signed with initials and dated 1866 Donors Thomas Agnew Ansdell and his sister Mrs Beryl Constance Leese, grandchildren of Richard Ansdell Date donated June 1926 |
This painting had been overlooked and hidden away until February 2015 when it was proudly hung in the Reception Room of St Annes Town Hall for a special unveiling after much hard work by the Lancashire Museums Service to conserve it and bring it back to its former glory. The cost of this was funded by Lytham St Annes Civic Society.
Painted when Ansdell was still very involved with Lytham, but had moved to London as he had to be there for his career, it was also at a time when he was exhibiting paintings mainly from his trips to Spain.
There is a far-reaching vista way out to the estuary and the sea - without examining the actual picture closely I can’t vouch for it - but there just could be a depiction of the dredger to the right of the figure on the horizon, ref: Dredging on the Ribble by Hugh Berry Scott (Acc No 62). Lytham Sandhills is part of a series of paintings that Ansdell did depicting the sand-dunes. They are all different but have the overall setting of the dunes. There is another Lytham Sandhills at the Harris Museum, Preston and there is also a link with Rabbiting on Lytham Sandhills in the Fylde Collection. More than anything this is the painting that has brought together the Civic Society, Fylde Borough Council (as they are still responsible for the dunes today), the Friends of the Art Collection and Sarah Kellam and Margaret Race, who both have a keen family interest in the Collection. Lytham Sandhills, and the fact that the painting arose from nowhere, is iconic to Lytham St Annes and Richard Ansdell would have been so pleased, amused and bemused all at the same time.
Painted when Ansdell was still very involved with Lytham, but had moved to London as he had to be there for his career, it was also at a time when he was exhibiting paintings mainly from his trips to Spain.
There is a far-reaching vista way out to the estuary and the sea - without examining the actual picture closely I can’t vouch for it - but there just could be a depiction of the dredger to the right of the figure on the horizon, ref: Dredging on the Ribble by Hugh Berry Scott (Acc No 62). Lytham Sandhills is part of a series of paintings that Ansdell did depicting the sand-dunes. They are all different but have the overall setting of the dunes. There is another Lytham Sandhills at the Harris Museum, Preston and there is also a link with Rabbiting on Lytham Sandhills in the Fylde Collection. More than anything this is the painting that has brought together the Civic Society, Fylde Borough Council (as they are still responsible for the dunes today), the Friends of the Art Collection and Sarah Kellam and Margaret Race, who both have a keen family interest in the Collection. Lytham Sandhills, and the fact that the painting arose from nowhere, is iconic to Lytham St Annes and Richard Ansdell would have been so pleased, amused and bemused all at the same time.
Lytham Sandhills during conservation
It is one of a series of paintings of the sandhills which Richard Ansdell loved so much when he was living at 'Starr Hills'. More than anything he delighted in the open spaces after moving his large family from inner-city Liverpool and he rejoiced in the fresh air, huge vistas and freedom that they embodied. He called his house 'Starr Hills' after the dunes and the 'starr' grass that grows there. Go out and have a look at the sandhills today – how many of us could paint them over and over again with such intimacy and attention to detail. Ansdell was in love with his newly-found open surroundings at a time when success was beckoning and that feeling could only bring about positive and happy things to come. Ansdell didn’t regard this painting as a masterpiece as he has only signed it with a monogram but this is good news as I feel he must have painted it for someone living in the town at the time. He has managed to capture the essence of the dunes with their rolling hillocks and the all-important vegetation that grows thereon (see attached notes on the ecology of the sandhills). Over the years he depicted the common grazing of cattle and sheep on the dunes, the wandering donkeys of the travelling folk and the sport of ferreting, which he himself and his oldest son took part in. He and his son appear in some of the paintings of the dunes. It is clear that he wanted to connect himself with this unique landscape. In this painting we see a young man (complete with a tear in his shirt near the right shoulder) and a terrier type of dog, having just used ferrets to catch rabbits to feed his family.
To view the complete artworks of Richard Ansdell in the Collection please click on his name under Artists on the Home page.
