Henry Scott Tuke, RA, RWS

(British, 1858-1929)

At the Capstan – on a Spanish Brig, 1889

Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Private collection, South Australia

Henry Tuke scholar Catherine Wallace has provided the following research on this painting:

The reference to this painting is in Tuke's register of paintings under the title of his oil Spanish boy in the rigging, R124 of 1889 where Tuke writes that it was painted on board the brig Chile 'where I did several others and bought numerous shirts and caps.'

The hat the main figure is wearing in this painting At the Capstan was certainly used by Tuke on his models for other paintings including Steering the Punt, 1909, watercolour. At the Capstan therefore was painted on board the brig Chile which was moored in Falmouth harbour in Cornwall, England in November 1889, and featured the Spanish crew as the models, not Tuke's usual models who were local youths from Falmouth.

The central figure has a distinctive costume with a blue tunic over a frill-edged shirt, a red sash at his waist which is used to store a whistle and other tools for his job. He is also wearing a knee length pair of black leather boots which were not usually seen worn by English mariners.

Tuke has painted this picture quite quickly as the brushwork is loose and free with the deck and background of the boat with the rigging and capstan is roughly sketched. But the figures themselves are carefully observed and the view underneath the main figure's arm to the crew member beyond, gives a spatial depth to the painting.

This picture was painted the year of his great success with All Hands to the Pumps!, his Royal Academy picture which was bought by the Chantrey bequest for the nation in the summer of 1889 and is now in the Tate Gallery in London. It also features men working aboard a ship but in a storm and was painted on Tuke's floating studio the Julie, a French brigantine. He was also painting another large figure composition onboard the Julie in 1889 called Euchre – or Dog Watch of men playing cards on deck. His recent success must have given Tuke the confidence and the curiosity to seek out new subjects on a similar theme.

According to the Falmouth Harbour Commissioner's Toll Book, the Chile was only one of two Spanish vessels to call into Falmouth in 1889 therefore a ship from Spain was a rare sight. The Chile was on her way from Morocco to Glasgow when she called in at Falmouth.