A Market Boat, Holland

A Market Boat, Holland

Dundee Art Galleries & Museum: 272-1987-138

Artist: Hook, James Clarke

Date: 1875

State: 1/1

Size: 11.8 x 20 cm

Medium: Etching and Drypoint

Alternative Title(s) Brimming Holland
Details Etching and drypoint. Black ink on thick paper. Graphite signature ‘James C. Hook’ outside of print at bottom right. Printsellers’ Association stamp at bottom left with the initials YJS in centre. According to the Printsellers’ Association the print was published by Edward S. Palmer as an artist’s proof of 100 in 1875 at a cost of 2gns. There was a further unlimited edition of prints (unsigned) at 1gn. Both this etching and The Mussel Gatherers (or The Fisherman’s Children) also in The Orchar Collection are unusual pieces. Usually another etcher would be employed to create a print of a painting but in these cases Hook completed both painting and etchings himself.
Description This coastal scene, typical of Hook’s paintings and etchings, depicts a market boat in Holland where a woman buys a duck from the stall holder.

In comparison to other impressions held within other collections the right hand female figure speaking to the sailor in this print is curiously ‘wiped’ out. Hook began the painting Brimming Holland in July 1869 during a stay at the Hotel Bellevue in Dort in the Netherlands. He exhibited the painting at the May 1870 exhibition of the Royal Academy. For more information see Rosalie Hook, Woman Behind the Painter: Diaries of Rosalie, Mrs James Clarke Hook (ed. Juliet McMaster). Edmonton, University of Alberta Press, 2006.

An impression of Brimming Holland (No. 126) was exhibited at The Fine Art Society’s Galleries, 148 New Bond Street, 1880 along with impressions of the four etchings by Paul Adolphe Rajon also in Orchar’s collection. It is possible Orchar bought all five works during this exhibition. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Etchings by Braquemond, Flameng, Seymour, Haden, Herkomer, Whistler and others. City Road, London, Virtue & Co. Ltd. 1880. Archives of the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Other Collections
  1. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (as Dutch Market on a Canal), San Francisco, USA
  2. Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Aberdeen, UK
References
  1. Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionary of Artists. Paris, Gründ, 2006
  2. Rodney K. Engen, Dictionary of Victorian Engravers, Print Publishers and Their Works. Cambridge, Chadwyck-Heley, 1979
  3. G.W. Friend, Index of Painters and Engravers with the titles of their work declared at the Office of the Printsellers’ Association, London, 9 James Street, Haymarket, 1894
  4. A.J. Hook, Life of James Clarke Hook, R.A. (3 Vols.) London, Butler and Tanner, Ltd., 1929-32
  5. Rosalie Hook, Woman Behind the Painter: Diaries of Rosalie, Mrs James Clarke Hook (ed. Juliet McMaster). Edmonton, University of Alberta Press, 2006
  6. Robin Spencer, ‘Whistler and James Clarke Hook’, Gazette de Beaux-Arts, July- August 1984, pp. 45-8
  7. F.G. Stephens, J. C. Hook, Royal Academician: His Life and Work, Art Annual. London, Art Journal Office, 1888
  8. Christopher Wood, Dictionary of Victorian Painters. Woodbridge, Antique Collectors Club, 1971

 

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