Lot 85: John Russell Chancellor (British, 1925-1984) 'Becalmed' - the Brixham trawler Souvenir and others in a flat calm on a glassy sea

'Becalmed' - the Brixham trawler Souvenir and others in a flat calm on a glassy sea
signed 'John Chancellor' (lower left)
oil on canvas
71 x 91.4cm (28 x 36in).

LITERATURE :
Rita Chancellor & Austin Hawkins, John Chancellor’s Classic Maritime Paintings, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1st ed., 1989, pp. 64-65, illustrated.

This is a hauntingly poetic work in which Chancellor shows a fleet of Brixham trawlers becalmed on a glassy sea just as dawn is breaking. The artist has identified the trawler in the foreground as the Brixham ‘Big Sloop’ Souvenir, registration number DH 462, owned and skippered by Frank Moxey, whilst the commentary (in the work noted above) suggests that trawling is about to commence as “the gulls are gathering with their uncanny intuition that she will soon be hauling.”