View of East Cliff, Hastings
Maker
Théodore Roussel (artist)
1847-1926
1847-1926
Title
View of East Cliff, Hastings
Date of Production
before 1900
Accession Number
D.2022.XX.1
Mode of Acquisition
Donato Esposito, gift, 2022
Credit
The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust).
Copyright
Work in the public domain
Location
Not currently on display
Label Text
Born in France but based in Britain for most of his career (from 1878), Théodore Roussel served as an important link between the French and British art worlds. He came to painting late, in 1872, following the end of his military service, and was largely self-taught, apart from informal mentoring from James McNeill Whistler, who introduced him to etching and drypoint. Although his best-known (and most notorious) work is a figure painting, The Reading Girl (1886, Tate), the bulk of his oeuvre consists of atmospheric landscapes, particularly on paper. This watercolour is typical of his landscapes; it depicts the coast at Hastings, where he spent considerable time in his later years and produced many of his pioneering colour etchings. Water and sky occupy most of the delicate, atmospheric composition, with the land appearing almost to dissolve into both.
Provenance
Agnes Ethel Mackay (1889–1980), niece of the artist; (?) her sale, Sotheby's, London, 29 May 1946; Hilary and Georgie Gerrish, London (dealer), from whom purchased February 2008; Gift of Donato Esposito, 2022
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