Artists at the Seaside
Art lovers are drawn to the Dolphin chip shop, not for its laminated images of Hastings gone by (which are perfectly nice), but in homage to the painter John Bratby RA. Bratby worked and lived in the town with his second wife, Patti – the two found love through a lonely hearts ad. Their house, perched high on the East Hill, gave him a bird’s eye view of the town and delivered the perfect light that painters crave. It also gave him a steep climb up and down to his favourite chippy and finally this carb-heavy meal did for him; he had a heart attack and died on the way back with the supper one evening.
Hastings: Fish Market On The Sands
Patti moved almost a decade ago but the Jerwood Gallery opposite the Dolphin has his masterful oil of fruit on a chair as part of its permanent collection – the gallery has a commitment to artists with an affiliation with the area. From the 1700s onwards, the rapidly changing seascape has drawn painters to Hastings. The first wave was led by JMW Turner, who came as a teenager on a visit from Margate. Over a period of about 30 years, he returned again and again – his sketchbook in the Tate’s collection is a brilliant primer on the subject, full of fascinating facts and notations. Hastings Museum now boasts one of the best pictures of the period, Hastings: Fish Market On The Sands, Early Morning, painted in 1824 (for local patron John Fuller).
The early morning light against the cliffs shows the fishermen and their wives selling their catch to a group of smartly dressed women – Turner tended to prefer his women dressed up. History doesn’t relate how much Fuller paid for the picture, but the museum bought it at auction in 2006 for £210,000 and visitors can see it for free, or they can when it returns from a minitour of America.
Samuel Prout, Painter in Water-Colours in Ordinary to King George IV and Queen Victoria, of whom John Ruskin once said: ‘Sometimes I tire of Turner, but never of Prout’, left his mark in the 1830s as did the Pre-Raphaelites Rossetti and Edward Lear. As artistic communities go, it continues to thrive and many will be present at the opening of the Jerwood Drawing Festival later this month and perhaps at the Dolphin afterwards to raise a chip to a fallen friend.
Next week: Seashells on the seashore
Hastings: Fish Market On The SandsPatti moved almost a decade ago but the Jerwood Gallery opposite the Dolphin has his masterful oil of fruit on a chair as part of its permanent collection – the gallery has a commitment to artists with an affiliation with the area. From the 1700s onwards, the rapidly changing seascape has drawn painters to Hastings. The first wave was led by JMW Turner, who came as a teenager on a visit from Margate. Over a period of about 30 years, he returned again and again – his sketchbook in the Tate’s collection is a brilliant primer on the subject, full of fascinating facts and notations. Hastings Museum now boasts one of the best pictures of the period, Hastings: Fish Market On The Sands, Early Morning, painted in 1824 (for local patron John Fuller).
The early morning light against the cliffs shows the fishermen and their wives selling their catch to a group of smartly dressed women – Turner tended to prefer his women dressed up. History doesn’t relate how much Fuller paid for the picture, but the museum bought it at auction in 2006 for £210,000 and visitors can see it for free, or they can when it returns from a minitour of America.
Samuel Prout, Painter in Water-Colours in Ordinary to King George IV and Queen Victoria, of whom John Ruskin once said: ‘Sometimes I tire of Turner, but never of Prout’, left his mark in the 1830s as did the Pre-Raphaelites Rossetti and Edward Lear. As artistic communities go, it continues to thrive and many will be present at the opening of the Jerwood Drawing Festival later this month and perhaps at the Dolphin afterwards to raise a chip to a fallen friend.
Next week: Seashells on the seashore