Oil painting entitled 'Hastings - Boats Making the Shore in a Breeze' by John James Chalon. Great Britain, 1819.

Oil painting seascape entitled 'Hastings - Boats Making the Shore in a Breeze'.

Purchased, 1861. It was bought for the museum by Farrer from Christie's (the artist's studio sale) 11 March 1861 (no.124, as "A Grand View of Hastings..."), £33-12-0.

Exhibited at the RA in 1819 with the title View of Hsatings and again at the British Institute in 1820, the size given in the catalogue as 66 by 97 inches including the frame.

John James Chalon (1778-1851) was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He moved to England with his family when his father became professor of French language at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1789. J.J. Chalon entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1796, his younger brother Alfred Edward Chalon (1780-1860) following him in 1797. J.J Chalon exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy between 1801 and 1854. Chalon also designed and produced a series of lithographs titled A Set of Twenty-Four Subjects Exhibiting the Costumes of Paris and co-founded the Society for the Study of Epic and Pastoral Design with his brother and Francis Stevens in 1808.

The church and town are clearly visible in the shaft of sunlight on the left. The Examiner critic thought the artist had ‘given very harsh outlines to his View of Hastings, so that the water looks like a sea of cut brass and lead, and diminishes the satisfaction we derive from the composition in other respects, especially that wildness of light that glares across the scene, such as is forebodingly seen on the approach of storms. A gust too of wind and rain is admirably painted.’ The New Monthly Magazine described it as ‘a fine conception; and, although somewhat harsh in parts, possesses great science and force of handling.’ At the 1862 International Exhibition, Weldon’s Register thought the work ‘a little metallic, but a most vigorous and manly study of nature; such as might well surprise those who judged the artist by the silly portraits of silly women he produced late in life.’

Hastings, like Brighton nearby on the southern coast of England, became a popular bathing resort in the late eighteenth century. With its tall cliffs, the town also offered artists a dramatic setting for paintings. The storm at sea and consequent danger of shipwreck are both highly Romantic subjects, reflecting as it were the turbulence of the human soul. Hard outlines, particularly those of the waves, have been used here by Chalon to create the harsh reality of the subject. Although the title refers to a sea breeze, the incorporation of metallic colouring and the observation of a sudden gust of wind driving wind against a boat convey the onset of a fierce storm.

Chalon exhibited the painting at the Royal Academy in 1819 (no.371) and at the British Institute in 1820. The composition of this work must have seemed very modern. Turner exhibited a shipwreck scene at the same Royal Academy exhibition in 1819 and Gericault exhibited his painting Raft of the Medusa in Paris in the same year.

The Chalon family emigrated from France to Britain after the French Revolution. A critic complained of this picture by John Chalon that 'the water looks like a sea of cut brass and lead'. However, he praised 'that wildness of light that glares across the scene, such as is forebodingly seen on the approach of storms'.

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