Lot 133
Haughton Forrest(1826-1925)To the Rescue
2 December 2025, 19:30 AEDT
SydneyAU$30,000 - AU$50,000
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Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Haughton Forrest (1826-1925)
To the Rescue
signed lower left: 'H Forrest'
oil on canvas
77.0 x 128.0cm (30 5/16 x 50 3/8in).
signed lower left: 'H Forrest'
oil on canvas
77.0 x 128.0cm (30 5/16 x 50 3/8in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Mr Frederick J. Gunn, Launceston, acquired c.1945
thence by descent
Ms Jenny Barrenger (nee Gunn), Launceston
The Estate of Jenny Barrenger, Launceston
LITERATURE
George Deas Brown, Haughton Forrest 1826-1925, Malakoff Fine Art Press, Melbourne, 1982, p. 50 (illus.)
Geoffrey Ayling & Ian Smith, Haughton Forrest (1826-1925), Biography, Catalogue and Gallery of Paintings (2 vols.), The Forrest Project, 4th edition, cat. HF2.2.016, p. 214 (black and white illus.)
Haughton Forrest arrived into Tasmania in 1876 after taking up a land grant in north eastern state on the Ringarooma River. He soon abandoned that enterprise, moving to Sorell, where he held a number of municipal positions including Bailiff of Crown Lands, Inspector of Nuisances and Superintendent of Police. In 1881, he surrendered all of those offices and moved to Wellington Hamlets, a suburb of Hobart, to devote himself entirely to his art. The present work, To The Rescue, was featured in the national newspaper The Mercury:
'The most recently finished specimen of the art labours of Captain Houghton (sic) Forrest, of Sorell, is now on view at the shop of Messrs Westcott, Beedham and Co., Collins Street. The subject is as usual a marine one, and represents the harbour of Fowey in Cornwall, with Mount's Bay fishing boats running in to it for shelter.
The old jetty which is seen in the foreground has long since been washed away, but was in existence when the original sketch was taken by the artist some 15 years since. The boats, in common with all the Mount's Bay fishing boats, have the letters PE inscribed in large letters on the mainsail. These letters refer to the town of Penzance, the harbour of which is nearest to St Michael's Mount. The treatment is in Captain Forrest's happiest style, and the picture will take favourable rank with the others that he has painted since his residence in the colony'.
The reference to the original sketch 'some 15 years since (i.e. 1865) indicates that Forrest brought sketches or sketchbooks with him from England. While watercolors by Forrest are occasionally seen, no sketches or sketchbooks have been found.'1
1. George Deas Brown, Haughton Forrest 1826-1925, Malakoff Fine Art Press, Melbourne, 1982, pp. 43-51