Richard Harry Carter, West Country Trawling Luggers, 1904, Watercolour, Framed

Description

Richard Harry Carter.
English ( b.1839 - d.1911 ).
West Country Trawling Luggers, circa 1904.
Watercolour. Signed.
Image size 15.2 … more Richard Harry Carter.
English ( b.1839 - d.1911 ).
West Country Trawling Luggers, circa 1904.
Watercolour. Signed.
Image size 15.2 inches x 12.2 inches ( 38.5cm x 31cm ).
Frame size 26.4 inches x 23 inches ( 67cm x 58.5cm ).

This original painting is by the Cornish artist Richard Harry Carter and dates from 1904 or potentially earlier.
The watercolour is presented and supplied in a sympathetic contemporary frame (which is shown in these photographs), mounted using conservation materials and behind non-reflective Tru Vue UltraVue® UV70 glass.
This antique painting is in good condition, commensurate with its age. The paper is age toned and the colours are slightly faded which pleasantly adds to the atmospherics of the setting. Now mounted with conservation materials it wants for nothing and is ready to hang and display.
The watercolour is signed lower left.

Richard Harry Carter was an accomplished Cornish artist, noted particularly for his landscape and seascapes.

He was born in Truro, Cornwall on 19 March 1839, the son of John and Elizabeth Cater. He was bought up by his mother and maternal grandparents as his father died when he was quite young. He first worked as an apprentice stationer and later as a clerk in a copper office. He went on to work as a cashier or accountant, until his artistic career flourished. His early works are mainly watercolours, but in his later life he preferred to paint in oils.

Carter’s earliest recorded works are from 1864 and are scenes of Cornwall and Scotland.
He married Ellen Dunn, who became a professor of music, at Truro in 1866 and they had at least three children. By 1884 the family was living in Falmouth, although they moved around the south-west, including Plymouth and Land’s End. By 1891 they had moved to London, although Carter continued to visit and work in Cornwall all his life, and indeed died there in Sennen on 7 February 1911, aged 71.

In 1879 Carter illustrated the book “Peeps into the Haunts and Homes of Cornwall”.

In 1891 Carter held an exhibition entitled ‘The Shetland Isles’ at Arthur Tooth and Sons Galleries in the Haymarket, London. He went on to exhibit at the 1895 Opening Exhibition at Newlyn and from also at Petersfield in Hampshire. Thereafter he exhibited at the Royal Academy and other leading galleries of the day. Carter was recognised at a talented artist and was a member of the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters.

In July 1904 Carter set off with Walter Langley for Holland, where they spent a month at Volendam on the Zuider Zee. There they stayed with a flourishing colony of artists led by two younger members of the Hague School, Willy Sluiter and Albert Neuhuys.

A group of Carter’s representative paintings are held in the fine art collection of the Royal Cornwall Museum.



This is a beautiful original watercolour painting by Richard Harry Carter, entitled West Country Trawling Luggers. It was produced around 1904 and is therefore truly antique. It depicts three fishing vessels alongside a harbour wall, with their sails up on their masts. The tall mast of the nearest vessel marks the centre of the painting, creating a perfectly balanced image. The three vessels are of similar dimensions, each echoes the shape of the others, so that they almost appear as a series of reflections. To the left of the vessels there is the faint outline of another vessel, further out at sea, appearing like a shadow. The water all around is extremely calm. There are a number of large buildings in the harbour, indistinct and probably commercial in nature. The palette is muted shades of creams, subtle blue and green hues and browns. Overall, this is a very peaceful and pleasant image, of balance and tranquillity. This piece has an attribution mark,
I am sure that it is completely authentic and take full responsibility for any authenticity
issues arising from misattribution less