FOLLOWER OF RICHARD PARKES BONINGTON | A BEACH SCENE IN FÉCAMP

W.A. Coats, Skelmorlie Castle, Ayrshire, by 1913;

The Hon. Sir William Gervase Beckett, M.P., by 1937;

With the Barbizon House, London, from whom acquired.

A. Dubuisson and C.E. Hughes, Richard Parkes Bonington: His Life and Work, London 1924, p. xiv, reproduced opposite p. 50 (as Bonington).

London, Paterson’s Gallery, Loan Exhibition of Pictures and Drawings, 1913, no. 30 (as Bonington);

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Pictures and Drawings by Richard Parkes Bonington and his Circle, 1937, no. 46 (as Bonington).

Long thought to be by Richard Parkes Bonington, and both published and exhibited as such in the early 20th Century, the composition of this painting relates closely to Bonington's beach scenes along the Picardy and Normandy coasts, painted in the 1820s, for which the artist is most famous. Fine examples of Bonington's work in this vein include On the Coast of Picardy (Wallace Collection, London);¹ and French Coast with Fishermen (Tate Gallery, London).²

Despite dying of tuberculosis at the age of 25, Bonington was one of the most influential and highly regarded English artists of the early nineteenth century. Born in England, he spent most of his short life in France, where his parents moved to run a lace making business. He was taught the English watercolour technique by Francois Louis Francia, who had studied with Thomas Girtin in London; and in Paris he met and befriended Eugene Delacroix, with whom he painted copies in the Louvre and later went on sketching tours. In 1824 he won a gold medal at the Paris Salon, along with his fellow countrymen John Constable and Anthony Vandyck Copley Fielding, and in 1826 he visited Italy, where he painted ravishing views of Venice. Of Bonington's art, Delacroix wrote: 'no one in this modern school, and perhaps even before, has possessed that lightness of touch which, especially in watercolours, makes his works a type of diamond which flatters and ravishes the eye, independently of any subject and any imitation'.³ 

Bonington's early death cut short the career of one of the most promising and talented artists in British history. His influence, even in such a short time, however, was profound, and his many followers included Roqueplan and Isabey in France; and Thomas Shotter Boys, James Holland, William Callow and John Scarlett Davis in England.

1. https://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=direct/1/ResultListView/result.t1.collection_list.$TspTitleImageLink.link&sp=10&sp=Scollection&sp=SfieldValue&sp=0&sp=0&sp=2&sp=SdetailList&sp=0&sp=Sdetail&sp=0&sp=F&sp=T&sp=6

2. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bonington-french-coast-with-fishermen-t11900

3. Quoted in P. Noon, Richard Parkes Bonington. 'On the Pleasures of Painting', New Haven and London 1991, p. 12.