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Wreck on Exmouth Bar
Oil on Canvas, 77 x 123cm
Signed and dated lower right J.F Danby 1861, and signed and inscribed with title and address on artist’s label verso
Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1861, no.388
Provenance: H.Koekkoek Fine Art Gallery, Piccadilly, London. (original label verso); Gorry Gallery Irish Painting and Scultpure Exhibition 2018, where purchased by current owner.
Painted and exhibited at The Royal Academy, London in the year of his father, Francis’, death the scene depicting a wreck on Exmouth Bar is a poignant reminder of the close association of father and son both as artists and boat building seafarers. Francis Danby settled in Exmouth in the mid 1840’s and would remain there until his death. While based in London’s Camden Town, James Francis was a frequent visitor to his father’s home, Shell House, amongst the sand dunes by the Maer River, just outside Exmouth. Judging by the similarities of topographical subject matter, composition and tone in both of their outputs at this time it seems likely that father and son often painted together. When comparing Francis Danby’s Dead Calm-Sunset, at the Bight of Exmouth, 1855 (The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter), one of his last great maritime compositions and this painting, both have low horizon lines accentuating a crimson dusk. The uncluttered nature of both compositions allows for the calm observation of their narrative, in the case of Wreck on the Exmouth Bar, the salvage of a foundered merchant ship at sunset. The keenly observed rigging in both paintings is evidence of their shared understanding of and passion for boats which, combined with their great technical dexterity, underlines their considerable contribution to British and Irish 19th century painting.
€ Enquire
Wreck on Exmouth Bar
Oil on Canvas, 77 x 123cm
Signed and dated lower right J.F Danby 1861, and signed and inscribed with title and address on artist’s label verso
Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1861, no.388
Provenance: H.Koekkoek Fine Art Gallery, Piccadilly, London. (original label verso); Gorry Gallery Irish Painting and Scultpure Exhibition 2018, where purchased by current owner.
Painted and exhibited at The Royal Academy, London in the year of his father, Francis’, death the scene depicting a wreck on Exmouth Bar is a poignant reminder of the close association of father and son both as artists and boat building seafarers. Francis Danby settled in Exmouth in the mid 1840’s and would remain there until his death. While based in London’s Camden Town, James Francis was a frequent visitor to his father’s home, Shell House, amongst the sand dunes by the Maer River, just outside Exmouth. Judging by the similarities of topographical subject matter, composition and tone in both of their outputs at this time it seems likely that father and son often painted together. When comparing Francis Danby’s Dead Calm-Sunset, at the Bight of Exmouth, 1855 (The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter), one of his last great maritime compositions and this painting, both have low horizon lines accentuating a crimson dusk. The uncluttered nature of both compositions allows for the calm observation of their narrative, in the case of Wreck on the Exmouth Bar, the salvage of a foundered merchant ship at sunset. The keenly observed rigging in both paintings is evidence of their shared understanding of and passion for boats which, combined with their great technical dexterity, underlines their considerable contribution to British and Irish 19th century painting.