Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering for sale this beautifully executed, large, watercolour by the artist ARTHUR SUKER, who has signed the painting in the lower right hand corner. Unfortunately, we do not know the location and cliffs change over the centuries by erosion, but it was probably somewhere on the Cornish coast. The painting depicts a sea stack, almost detached from the cliff which it was part of. A sea stack is a tall pillar of rock, formed when, due to erosion, a cave appears in the cliffs and eventually the roof collapses and the pillar is no longer attached to the cliffs. These sea stacks are a favourite nesting site for sea birds, as they are free from predators, as can be seen from this painting. The sea is a bright blue/green and there is distant land on the horizon.

This is one of a pair of similar scenes by this artist that we are currently listing.

ARTHUR SUKER 1857-1902, was born in Cheshire in 1857, eventually moving to Cornwall and finally Brixham in Devon, where he died in 1902. He exhibited his work between 1882 and 1902. He studied for about two years at the Birkenhead School of Art and painted landscapes and coastal scenes in oil and watercolour. He was the brother of Frederick Clive Newcombe and the first cousin of W. Crane, both of whom were artists. As well as Devon and Cornwall, he painted in Wales, the Lake District, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Examples of his work may be found in Sydney Art Gallery, Australia.

His bibliographical details may be found in The Dictionary of Victorian Painters, by Wood, The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists by Mallalieu and The Dictionary of British Artists. According to Graves Dictionary, while living in Merton in 1886, he exhibited 1 painting under the heading Sea Pieces, at the Royal Academy. Other than this, Arthur Suker exhibited 12 paintings at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2 at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, and 1 each at the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Dudley Gallery.

The auction results for this artist may be found on artnet.com (46 listings), findartinfo.com (107), artprice.com (229) and arcadja.com (66). He is also quoted in Hislop's Guide to the UK Art Market, where a watercolour of his entitled 'On the Cornish Coast' achieved £1,500 in 2006 at Halls Auction in Shrewsbury.

The painting has been newly double mounted in two tone to complement and is newly framed in a 1 1/8" dull, mottled gilt frame. It is ready to hang.

Medium Watercolours