"Deep Sea Fishing" by James Clarke Hook RA, 1819-1907

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Deep Sea Fishing

James Clarke Hook, RA, 1819-1907

1864

Oil on Canvas

84 x 61 cm.

Three seasoned Cornish fishermen from St Ives are trailing leaded lines from their boat to catch fish at different depths (see Gunzi 16). [Commentary continues below.]

Text by Jacqueline Banerjee; photograph kindly provided by the City of London Corporation's Guildhall Art Gallery, where it is currently on display as part of the "Victorians Decoded" exhibition of 20 September 2016 - 22 January 2017. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Here is a good example of Hook's characteristically "strong and marked expression, powerful colouring, scrupulous detail, and, above all ... the subjective mode of treatment in the commonest objects..." (Sandby 309-10). The viewer is placed in the very midst of the green swell, in a dramatic confrontation with the three fishermen protected from the elements only by a small vessel and their sou'westers and waterproofs. But the men themselves are impassive. There is nothing dramatic about the situation to them: they are completely focused on what is to them a routine task.

At the time of writing, this painting is on show at the Guildhall Art Gallery's 2016 exhibition, on the 150th anniversary of the the laying of the Atlantic cable in 1866. In this context, it is seen as displaying early technological knowhow involving the depths of the ocean — where lines of telegraphic communication were soon to be successfully laid. The laying of the cable was, of course, a major historic event with a drama all its own, enacted for a purpose and profit on a profoundly different scale. But there is an interesting correlation between these areas of human endeavour.

Bibliography

Gunzi, Roo. Amongst Heroes: The Artist in Working Cornwall. Catalogue of a 2013 exhibition at Two Temple Place, London. Web. 23 September 2016.

Sandby, William. The History of the Royal Academy of Arts from Its Foundation in 1760 to the Present Day. London: Longman, 1862. Google Books. Web. 24 September 2016.

Created 23 September 2016