Shore Scene with Beached Boat in Rough Water
|
Research by Marie Riley
Painting described by Jean Holland |
|
Acc No 97
Artist Susan Woodhouse Artist dates 1872-1948 Medium oil Size 51.6 x 76.2 cm (20.3 x 30 in) Date painted unknown Donor bequest of the artist 20 Cyprus Avenue, Lytham St Annes Date donated 29 November 1948 |
According to Stephen Sartin:
‘The bequest comprised 10 paintings of which this, by the donor, an amateur artist, must be one. The others, presumably also by Susan Woodhouse, are presently lost, having apparently been "loaned temporarily to the Children's Cottage Homes at Kirkham of the National Assistance Board" on 07.02.49. In 1968 they could not be traced.' (1) The Homes closed in 1957.
Inscribed on the reverse 'Copied by Mrs S Woodhouse at Art School, St Annes’. It is not known who painted the original that the copy
was made from or where the scene is located.
The drama of the fiery sky in this oil painting by Susan Woodhouse immediately provokes a feeling of anxiety in the viewer.
This is further developed by the dynamic line of the sail of the boat which is the focal point of the painting, and the artist’s skilful use of the splashes of bright red used on the boat from an otherwise limited palette of cobalt and siennas. The eye is led to this main boat by the activity of the men on the left pushing the rowing boat towards it, thus uniting the shallow and the deep plane of the distant horizon where more dynamic lines of sails appear.
Below the huge threatening sky of stormy billowing clouds, which covers two thirds of the picture, the boats and the pier loom in dramatic silhouette on a swirling sea where the free, brisk, lively energetic brushwork emphasises the storm in the scene.
ARTIST
Susan Woodhouse, nee Shepherd, was born in Newton Heath, Manchester in late 1871 or early 1872. (2) Her father, Edward, was a manufacturing chemist.
In 1898 she married William Henry Woodhouse, a pawnbroker from Ardwick. The couple were still living in Manchester at the time of the 1901 census but by 1907 she was listed as living at 107 Warton Street in Lytham, although her husband, William, was not included at that address. By the 1911 census she was still resident there with William and a live-in domestic servant. The census revealed that prior to 1911 the couple had had two children who died in infancy.
Susan was widowed in 1918 at the age of 46. The probate record for William reveals that by then they were living at 20 Cyprus Avenue in Ansdell. She continued to live at Cyprus Avenue until she herself died, aged 77, on 24 October 1948. She appears to have had no living children.
Susan Woodhouse also donated a large watercolour by Henry Rheam, Harbour Scene with Figures (1889). This picture remains in the Collection. Rheam had links with the Newlyn School but Woodhouse, as Sartin noted, seems to have been an amateur artist who lived locally with no connection to Rheam or Newlyn.
REFERENCES
(1) http://www.lythamstannesartcollection.org/the-treasures.html
(2) Her birth is registered in the January – March Quarter of 1872 (registration district Manchester, Vol 8d, p 337). As there is a period of six weeks before a birth needs to be registered she could feasibly have been born in December 1871. The rest of the biographical information on Susan Woodhouse has been obtained via http://www.amounderness.co.uk/householders_lytham_1907.html; census information; Births Marriages and Death Indexes and probate records from Ancestry.com
‘The bequest comprised 10 paintings of which this, by the donor, an amateur artist, must be one. The others, presumably also by Susan Woodhouse, are presently lost, having apparently been "loaned temporarily to the Children's Cottage Homes at Kirkham of the National Assistance Board" on 07.02.49. In 1968 they could not be traced.' (1) The Homes closed in 1957.
Inscribed on the reverse 'Copied by Mrs S Woodhouse at Art School, St Annes’. It is not known who painted the original that the copy
was made from or where the scene is located.
The drama of the fiery sky in this oil painting by Susan Woodhouse immediately provokes a feeling of anxiety in the viewer.
This is further developed by the dynamic line of the sail of the boat which is the focal point of the painting, and the artist’s skilful use of the splashes of bright red used on the boat from an otherwise limited palette of cobalt and siennas. The eye is led to this main boat by the activity of the men on the left pushing the rowing boat towards it, thus uniting the shallow and the deep plane of the distant horizon where more dynamic lines of sails appear.
Below the huge threatening sky of stormy billowing clouds, which covers two thirds of the picture, the boats and the pier loom in dramatic silhouette on a swirling sea where the free, brisk, lively energetic brushwork emphasises the storm in the scene.
ARTIST
Susan Woodhouse, nee Shepherd, was born in Newton Heath, Manchester in late 1871 or early 1872. (2) Her father, Edward, was a manufacturing chemist.
In 1898 she married William Henry Woodhouse, a pawnbroker from Ardwick. The couple were still living in Manchester at the time of the 1901 census but by 1907 she was listed as living at 107 Warton Street in Lytham, although her husband, William, was not included at that address. By the 1911 census she was still resident there with William and a live-in domestic servant. The census revealed that prior to 1911 the couple had had two children who died in infancy.
Susan was widowed in 1918 at the age of 46. The probate record for William reveals that by then they were living at 20 Cyprus Avenue in Ansdell. She continued to live at Cyprus Avenue until she herself died, aged 77, on 24 October 1948. She appears to have had no living children.
Susan Woodhouse also donated a large watercolour by Henry Rheam, Harbour Scene with Figures (1889). This picture remains in the Collection. Rheam had links with the Newlyn School but Woodhouse, as Sartin noted, seems to have been an amateur artist who lived locally with no connection to Rheam or Newlyn.
REFERENCES
(1) http://www.lythamstannesartcollection.org/the-treasures.html
(2) Her birth is registered in the January – March Quarter of 1872 (registration district Manchester, Vol 8d, p 337). As there is a period of six weeks before a birth needs to be registered she could feasibly have been born in December 1871. The rest of the biographical information on Susan Woodhouse has been obtained via http://www.amounderness.co.uk/householders_lytham_1907.html; census information; Births Marriages and Death Indexes and probate records from Ancestry.com
