Shrimpers Hauling to Windward. William Lionel Wyllie RA, RI, RE (1851-1931). Oil on canvas, 22 ¾ x 27 ½ inches. Courtesy of the Maas Gallery, London. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
“At the Royal Academy in 1905, this picture was eclipsed by Wyllie’s enormous painting of Trafalgar on the centenary of the battle, which ‘stole the show’ with the critics. However, this smaller painting is a modest masterpiece of marine art, and shows that Wyllie had lost none of the skill that he had shown thirty years earlier. The picture is full of movement, air, and light. A sea reach (as it is labelled) is the last bit of river before the sea, with the mud bank in the water to the right. The last of the shrimper fleet are hard on the starboard tack in the channel, against both wind and current, whilst some of the leading boats have already tacked inside the safety of the harbour which, from the look of the low-lying topography, may be on the east coast.” — Maas Gallery
The Maas Gallery, 16 Duke Street St James's, London SW1Y 6BN, 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. — George P. Landow
Created 29 June 2022