Lot 46: HELEN GALLOWAY MCNICOLL 1879 - 1915

AN ENGLISH BEACH
signed l.r.: H. McNicoll; titled and stamped with the McNicoll studio stamp on the reverse

35.6 by 45.7 cm. 14 by 18 in.

oil on canvas

Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Helen McNicoll, A Canadian Impressionist, 1999, illustrated, p. 54, no. 24

Toronto, Morris Gallery, Helen McNicoll, 1879-1915, Nov. 1974, no. 15, illustrated

Morris Gallery, Toronto

Sotheby's, Toronto, October, 1977, lot 68

Private Collection, Ontario

This fine canavas was most likely painted near St. Ives, on the most westerly coast of Cornwall in England, where McNicoll began her longstanding friendship with the English painter Dorothea Sharp (1874-1955).

As McNicoll was hearing-impaired, Sharp was able to negotiate space on a public beach where she could do her "plein air" paintings and act as a companion to McNicoll, thus preserving each other's respectability in an age of long-held conventions of women travelling and working alone.

McNicoll's mature painting style was one that illustrated the carefree world of pleasure and leisure in a time of childhood. Adapting the ideals of Impressionism, coupled with the sunny and optimistic view of rural life, McNicoll was able, in her short lifetime, to create a large body of work.

An English Beach is like a symphonic ode to a brilliant summer's day at the seashore. There is enough of a haze on the water to mute the hills on the side of the cove, creating a restful, romantic and relaxing atmosphere. The light-filled canvas, with tiny figures interrupting the wave-shaped sand and the shadow of a passing cloud, give the work an aura of a poetic dream.