The present watercolour was painted in the summer of 1911 in Falmouth, Cornwall where Henry Scott Tuke lived for much of his life. It features Charlie Mitchell (1885 – 1957) one of Tuke's most loyal and longstanding models. It is a loosely painted watercolour and shows Tuke at the height of his impressionist style of painting, using the same blue in the shadows of the figure and rock as the blue of the sea, thus creating an overall harmony of light and colour.

The summer of 1911 was an important year for Tuke in terms of watercolour painting. It was the year he would submit his diploma piece Green Water to the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour in order for him to be elected a full member of that prestigious society. Tuke was made an Associate in 1904 and exhibited over 50 works at the Society galleries between then and 1911.

The present lot could be Afternoon Sun which was also shown alongside Green Water at the RWS in the winter exhibition of 1911.

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

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- 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings