Study for The Sea-Beach after a Storm”. William Lionel Wyllie RA, RI, RE (1851-1931). Oil on board, 5 x 7 ¾ inches. Courtesy of the Maas Gallery, London. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
“This brisk oil sketch is a study, painted when Wyllie was only 18, for the picture which won him the Royal Academy’s Turner Gold Medal for the best painting of a coast scene in December 1869. It launched his career. The finished painting depicted an adventure on the exposed coast of France at Wimereux, north of Boulogne, where Wyllie was brought up: ‘In the fiercest gale that anyone could remember, a topsail schooner ran aground but a long way from the beach. The crew, who could not swim, had already lost the ship’s boat and were being watched helplessly from the beach by a crowd, when William and his two brothers charged into the water. They were knocked down, battered and thrown back. Many times they disappeared into the waves and everyone thought that they were lost. The youngest one [Charles Wyllie] eventually had to return to the beach but the other two continued to battle on... just before they reached the wreck they seemed to falter. Then, with a last effort and to the frenzied cheers of the crew, a rope was thrown to them from the ship and with it they returned to the shore.... and the lives of the seven men aboard the ship were saved. Nor was the rescue affected a moment too soon for almost immediately the ship was rent asunder’ (the local newspaper: La France du Nord, 17 September 1869). ” — Maas Gallery
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Created 29 June 2022