SEASCAPE

These sensitive seascapes are by the artist Thomas Barrett, a pioneer of the Staithes Group.  He was born in Nottingham, and would remain based in the city all his life, studying at the Nottingham School of Art, and then returning later as its Second Master.  His pupils included the young Laura and Harold Knight, and he famously advised Laura; ‘Go to Staithes! There is no place like it in all the world for painting!’

Barrett first visited the fishing village of Staithes in 1880, tucked into a steep ravine on the North Yorkshire coast, and fell in love with it. With narrow streets and a busy harbour, it offered plenty of opportunity for artists, who were also interested in the harsh working lives of the local people.  By the early twentieth century there was an artists’ colony of over thirty painters working there. These artists largely rejected the classical painting of the establishment, and were influenced by the Newlyn school, the Barbizon school, and Impressionism, preferring to paint en plein air. These seascapes are very much in this style, with their assured spontaneous brushwork and impasto it is remarkable that they were painted in 1892, very much confirming Barrett’s place as a vanguard of the group.

Provenance: The Rowley Gallery

Medium: Oil on board

Signed: Signed and dated 1892

Size: 24 × 34cm