Sunny hours in Jamaica

Price Realised GBP 10,710

Estimate

GBP 5,000 - GBP 8,000

Closed: 14 Jul 2022

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HENRY SCOTT TUKE, R.A., R.W.S. (1858-1929)

Sunny hours in Jamaica

Price Realised GBP 10,710

Closed: 14 Jul 2022

Price Realised GBP 10,710

Closed: 14 Jul 2022

Details Lot Essay More from

HENRY SCOTT TUKE, R.A., R.W.S. (1858-1929)
Sunny hours in Jamaica
signed and dated 'H.S.TUKE 1924' (lower left)
pencil and watercolour on paper
10¹⁄₄ x 14¹⁄₄ in. (26 x 36.2 cm.)

with Abbott & Holder, London, 1974, where purchased for
The Peter Rose and Albert Gallichan Collection; Christie's, London, 30 September 2021, lot 217, where purchased by the present owner.

M. Tuke Sainsbury, Henry Scott Tuke: A Memoir, London, 1933, p. 164.
B.D. Price (ed.), The Registers of Henry Scott Tuke, Falmouth, 1983 (2nd ed.), R1066.
E. Scott, The Life and Work of Henry Scott Tuke, London, 1987, p. 61.
D. Wainwright & C. Dinn, Henry Scott Tuke 1858-1929, Under Canvas, London, 1989, p. 138, no. 120.

London, Royal Watercolour Society, Winter exhibition, 1924.

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Lot Essay

Painted on his epic trip to the West Indies in the winter of 1923-4 with the explorers F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, Lady Richmond Brown and the archaeologist Dr Gann, Tuke regarded this as one of the best sketches he completed whilst exploring the Black River area of Jamaica. It features one of the local Jamaican boys, Ralph, lying across the bow of a small boat with the sloop 'Energy' in sail in the background on the Black river with the town beyond. He painted this picture on 28 January 1924 as he remarks in his diary for that day: 'Out in the boat with Ralph and did one of the best sketches. Ralph lying across the bow with the sloop Energy and the town behind.'

This watercolour shows Tuke’s great skill at painting in watercolour, using the white of the paper to create the bright Caribbean light across the painting from edge of Ralph’s shirt to the white sail of the schooner and its reflection in the river to the clouds in the sky. The palette of colours he chose is also convincingly Caribbean with cobalt blue and aquamarine for the river, a mix of blue and red to suggest purple hills in the distance and a mix of brown and blue to make the shadows in the painting.

We are grateful to Catherine Wallace for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.