A Dutch Dogger Carrying Away her Sprit thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
British Galleries, Room 122

A Dutch Dogger Carrying Away her Sprit

Oil Painting
1846 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
Oil paintings of seascapes and shipping in the Dutch style had been collected in Britain since the Dutch started making them in quantity. British artists also painted similar scenes to meet the demand from collectors. Clarkson Stanfield was regarded by many of his contemporaries as the best British marine oil painter of his time. His dramatic and accurate depiction of the sea in rough weather was thought preferable to Turner's misty and poetic paintings.

Subjects Depicted
Here the artist shows a fishing boat in difficulties in a storm, with the power of the waves manifest against the tiny craft. The Dogger Bank in the North Sea was one of the best areas for fishing, but was prone to sudden squalls, making the life of a poor fisherman even more hard and dangerous.

People
Frederick Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867) was a painter in oils and watercolours, mainly of landscapes and marine views. The son of an actor, J. F. Stanfield, he went to sea as a young boy and was press-ganged into the Royal Navy, but he left the service after being injured. He painted stage scenery for theatres in London, where he was a friend and rival to the Scottish painter, David Roberts (1796-1864) with whom he also collaborated, making dioramas and panoramas.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • A Dutch Dogger Carrying Away her Sprit
  • On the Dogger Bank
Materials and techniques
oil on canvas
Brief description
Oil painting, 'A Dutch Dogger Carrying Away her Sprit ('On the Dogger Bank')', Clarkson Stanfield, 1846
Physical description
Oil painting depicting seascape entitled 'On the Dogger Bank'. In the painting the 'sprit' - part of the mast supporting the sail - has snapped like a twig, and one of the fishermen is attempting to retrieve it. The immense size and strength of the waves is contrasted with the smallness and frailty of the men and their boat. The wind galvanizes every element in opposition to the fishermen, and Stanfield orchestrates his colours and brushwork with equal energy, silhouetting the mighty waves and heaving clouds in a complex system of lights and darks.
Dimensions
  • Height: 76.2cm
  • Width: 69.9cm
  • Depth: 10cm
  • Estimate height: 107.5cm
  • Framed width: 101.5cm
Dimensions checked: Measured; 20/01/1999 by sf
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
'C Stanfield. RA. 1846' (Signed and dated by the artist, diagonally, lower left)
Gallery label
British Galleries: The public and fellow artists regarded Clarkson Stanfield as the best British marine painter of his time. They preferred this kind of highly finished and dramatic image of a fishing boat in difficulty to the misty and poetic paintings by Turner like the one of Venice to the left.(27/03/2003)
Credit line
Bequeathed by John Jones
Object history
Bequeathed by John Jones, 1882.
As a young man, the artist had spent many years as a sailor. This virtuoso sea painting is Stanfield's masterpiece, and was shown as such in the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855. The title in the Royal Academy catalogue was accompanied by these lines of verse, perhaps composed by the painter himself:
'On the Dogger Bank, in the cold North Sea,
Wearily day and night toil we;
Weary, wet, hungry and cold,
Three poor fishermen we, weakly and old'.

Painted for the artist A.E. Chalon By Frederick Clarkson Stanfield (born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, 1793, died in London, 1867)
Subjects depicted
Summary
Object Type
Oil paintings of seascapes and shipping in the Dutch style had been collected in Britain since the Dutch started making them in quantity. British artists also painted similar scenes to meet the demand from collectors. Clarkson Stanfield was regarded by many of his contemporaries as the best British marine oil painter of his time. His dramatic and accurate depiction of the sea in rough weather was thought preferable to Turner's misty and poetic paintings.

Subjects Depicted
Here the artist shows a fishing boat in difficulties in a storm, with the power of the waves manifest against the tiny craft. The Dogger Bank in the North Sea was one of the best areas for fishing, but was prone to sudden squalls, making the life of a poor fisherman even more hard and dangerous.

People
Frederick Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867) was a painter in oils and watercolours, mainly of landscapes and marine views. The son of an actor, J. F. Stanfield, he went to sea as a young boy and was press-ganged into the Royal Navy, but he left the service after being injured. He painted stage scenery for theatres in London, where he was a friend and rival to the Scottish painter, David Roberts (1796-1864) with whom he also collaborated, making dioramas and panoramas.
Bibliographic reference
Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 273-74
Collection
Accession number
486-1882

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Record createdDecember 15, 1999
Record URL
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