The 1938 "Staithes, Yorkshire" with its wartime connections to Vincent Massey brought alive in new photo.
Vincent Massey was the Canadian High Commissioner to Britain during WW2, and later became the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada. Massey was also an art collector, and took a close interest in the activities of the both the Canadian and British war artists.
He bought Staithes, Yorkshire (1938) from the Redfern Gallery at the same time as he bought the better known Dunkirk Beaches, May 1940 (1940), and gifted them both to the National Gallery of Canada in 1946. We had a poor quality black and white image as a place holder for the Staithes picture, but it only gave a vague impression of the work. We sensed that there was a lot in it which was just not coming out. So we asked the National Gallery of Canada if there was a colour image we could use. There wasn't but they immediately offered to photograph it especially for us, which they managed to do very quickly despite Covid-19 distrupting so much of their schedule.
And what a difference that has made! It is a great painting. Zoom into it on the Work page and discover the richness of what it has to offer.
Thank you, National Gallery of Canada!
Staithes, Yorkshire (1938)
