Lot 84: John Russell Chancellor (British, 1925-1984) French Tunneymen

French Tunneymen
signed 'John Chancellor' (lower right), inscribed on label on reverse
watercolour
35.4 x 53.6cm (13 15/16 x 21 1/8in).

LITERATURE :
Rita Chancellor & Austin Hawkins, John Chancellor’s Classic Maritime Paintings, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1st ed., 1989, p. 41, illustrated.

These sturdy yawl-rigged boats were once a common sight on the west coast of Brittany and were usually 50-60 feet long with a beam of about one-third of the water-line length. Often colourfully painted, and with distinctive tan sails, their long fishing rods were hinged on either side of the mainmast at deck level and triced up to the masthead when not in use. So prized was the tunny (tuna) that these boats sometimes ventured two or even three hundred miles out into the Atlantic in order to secure a good catch.