A most appealing watercolour of a pair of racing yachts off suburban Largs Bay, north of Adelaide, with the Largs Pier Hotel and pier featured prominently in the background
The painting is a watercolour (with gouache highlights) on linen-mounted paper, behind glass in an elaborate gilt frame of the period (we suggest the 1880s; the hotel was built in 1882). It is signed by the artist (as GF Gregory) in the bottom left-hand corner. The visible image size is 255 × 490 mm; the overall external dimensions are 460 × 690 mm. There are a few trifling blemishes to the image (full details and our conservator's positive comments are available on request), but the overall package is extremely attractive, not least because of the grandeur of the Largs Pier Hotel, still standing in all its classical Italianate glory. George Frederick Gregory Jr, his father (1821-1887) and his brother Arthur Victor Gregory (1867-1957) were well-known Australian marine artists. 'Despite marine artists typically developing a career that was parochial, if not fiercely territorial, he [George Jr] was one of only a few who worked in several localities across Australia during the course of his colourful life. Starting in Victoria, he then spent years working in South Australia, and ultimately in New South Wales.... he became the most versatile and commercially-oriented artist from his family' (from a lengthy and informative article on George Gregory Jr by Alexander Ibels, published in the journal of the Australian Association for Maritime History, 'The Great Circle', Volume 33, Number 2, 2011, pages 23-42). Ibels has established that Gregory was active sporadically in Adelaide between 1877 and 1888; he lived there from 1888 until 1894, when personal problems led to him abandoning his family and leaving the colony for good. The technique of painting on paper mounted on linen, a feature of his father's work, was rarely used by the son after he settled in Adelaide, narrowing the likely date of this painting to the period 1882-1888.
Item #109158
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