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Fish-stalls on the shore

Maker

Edward Duncan (artist)
1803-1882

Title

Date of Production

1800 - 1899

Medium

black chalk, watercolour, bodycolour and paint with scratching out on greenish wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 18.9 cm
Width: 35.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.4358

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Notes

Edward Duncan trained as an engraver, but was best known as a marine painter. He was most successful depicting rough seas and ship wrecks but was equally adept at coastal scenes of boats, beachcombers and seafarers. On the right two fisherman rest under a roof loaded with nets and baskets. The focal point, however, is an elegant woman in a brown checked skirt and green bustle with a child at the fish-stall. The artist often used bright colours as highlights, in this instance, scarlet for the shawl of the central figure and the head scarf of the woman selling fish, as well as strong accents of white, used here to pick out the costume trimmings and silvery scales of the fish and to emphasize the billowing clouds.

Provenance

Reverend G.B. Mountford; his sale, Sotheby's (London), 14 December 1949, lot 8; purchased there by Colnaghi (London) (£7); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, 13 March 1950 (£8); Witt Bequest 1952

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 17

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Collector's mark: Verso: lower left corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

Inscription: Recto: lower left (on fish stall), black chalk, signed with initials: "E.D". Verso: upper left corner, graphite: "16"; upper right corner, graphite: "M"; centre, graphite: "E. Duncan"; lower right, graphite, Colnaghi number: "A. 17044 / L.G"; lower left corner, graphite: "7".

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