Lot 50: Lionel Percy Smythe 1839-1918 , boulogne fisher-folk, an impression watercolour with bodycolour

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Description: signed and dated l.l.: Lionel Smythe/ 1893 watercolour with bodycolour

Notes: 'In the summer of 1893 he exhibited 'An Impression', by many considered the best watercolour he ever painted. It represents a group of matelottes walking along the Boulogne quays, with a background of shipping and a few distant sailors. The women are all portraits. While painting, he used to get them to talk about themselves, and tell him of their chief interests; he tried to express the dominant train of thought in each.' (R. M. Whitlaw and R. M. Wyllie, Lionel Percy Smythe, 1923, pp. 114-115)

Dimensions: measurements note 42.5 by 76 cm., 16 3/4 by 30 in.

Exhibited: London, Old Watercolour Society, 1893, number not known;
Paris, International Exhibition, 1900, number not known;
London, Pyms Gallery, Edwardian Impressions, An Exhibition of Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Paintings, October-November 1981, no .39

Literature: R. M. Whitlaw and R. M. Wyllie, Lionel Percy Smythe, 1923, pp. 114-115