The Needles, Isle of Wight. Keeley Halswelle ARSA, RI 1832-1891. Oil on canvas, 20 x 29½ inches. Inscribed 'by Keeley Halswelle' on stretcher. Courtesy of the Maas Gallery. [Detail] Click on image to enlarge it.

“He painted this early work when he was 28, working in the manner of the coastal painter Peter Graham. His best pictures have a theatrical sense of scale about them. After his marriage in 1861 and a trip to Italy in search of commercial subjects, he painted continental scenes, but in the 1880s he started to paint landscapes of Scotland and the Thames Valley in a looser, much more dramatic manner, and found his métier. He lived then on a houseboat on the Thames, painting hundreds of plein air sketches, many of which have ended up in the V&A..” — Maas Gallery

The Maas Gallery, 15a Clifford Street, London W1S 4JZ has most generously given its permission to use in the Victorian Web information, images, and text from its catalogues. The copyright on text and images from their catalogues remains, of course, with the Gallery. Readers should consult their website to obtain information about recent exhibitions and to order their catalogues. [GPL]


Created 26 February 2018