Footnotes

This dramatic painting by Newcastle born artist Charles Napier Hemy is set in Falmouth harbour in Cornwall. Hemy had visited Falmouth on several occasions on painting trips before finally settling there in 1881, when he married his second wife Amy Freeman. He was to remain there for the rest of his life.

By 1886, Hemy had already established a reputation for his maritime work in London. This painting has many similarities to his Royal Academy exhibit of the following year – "The Smelt Net" also painted in 1886. This painting could be seen as forerunner to "The Smelt Net". Both paintings feature fishermen on their boats in the foreground and the training ship H.M.S Ganges in the background. This ship, which had been an 84 gunship of the line was converted in to a Navy training vessel for young boys. It was anchored in Falmouth harbour near Mylor from 1866 to 1899.

In this painting Pendennis castle, on a headland at one side to the entrance of Falmouth harbour, is shown in the distance. In the foreground the fishermen are depicted on the stern of their working sailing boat hauling in a dredge which was dragged along behind the boat to catch oysters.
Hemy was able to give the feeling of the viewer being 'at sea' alongside the fishermen as he used a converted seine boat as a floating studio which he christened the Vanderveld.

Frank Brangwyn wrote, "To me Hemy stands for the waters of England... His knowledge of the sea was superb. As a draughtsman of wave forms he stands alone."* This painting is a good example of Hemy's draughtsmanship of wave forms as he convincingly captures the swell in the sea left by the wake of the boat which stretches diagonally across the right side of the picture.

*From the foreword to Hemy's memorial exhibition 'A Life on the Sea' held at the Fine Art Society, 1918.

We are grateful to Catherine Wallace for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.