Tugboat

A gift from RE to his sister Evelyn, Christmas 1921.

Extract from Dad’s Memoir (possibly not describing this particular picture, but one very similar?): For some reason I made a visit to Liverpool to see some old relatives at Birkenhead for a day or two. I had never seen docks under winter conditions and when I arrived home I painted a sunset over the docks with a steamer churning up water all emerald green and orange. I must have used many dangerous colours on this work but to-day it still looks as fresh as when it was painted over thirty years ago. I showed this picture to the life master …

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Extract from Dad’s Memoir (possibly not describing this particular picture, but one very similar?): For some reason I made a visit to Liverpool to see some old relatives at Birkenhead for a day or two. I had never seen docks under winter conditions and when I arrived home I painted a sunset over the docks with a steamer churning up water all emerald green and orange. I must have used many dangerous colours on this work but to-day it still looks as fresh as when it was painted over thirty years ago. I showed this picture to the life master and my friend who was about to go up to London to the Royal College of Art. I rather had a feeling that it would be frowned upon and it certainly was! I think there was a certain snobbishness creeping into painting at this time. It was generally thought that if a layman liked a painting then it must be bad. I had let drop a word that Father had liked this sunset so it was damned accordingly. But there was also another reason: sunsets just simply weren’t done. They had been finished with long ago and now we only dealt with form, significant form.