At The Well

Artist Henry Herbert La Thangue (Croydon, London, England, 1859 - 1929)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 56.3 cm, Width: 65.5 cm
Frame: Height: 72.5 cm, Width: 81 cm

AcquisitionBequeathed in 1941 by Mrs H H La Thangue.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG002493

Keywords

About MeHenry Herbert La Thangue was an English Realist rural landscape painter associated with the Newlyn School. He attended Dulwich College, where he met fellow painters Stanhope Forbes and Frederick Goodall. He studied painting first at the Lambeth School of Art and then, from 1874-79, at the Royal Academy, London, winning a gold medal for his work in 1879. This led to a prestigious scholarship for three years at the studio of Jean-Léon Gérome at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Here La Thangue came under the influence of the Barbizon school of open-air landscape painters, including Jules Bastien-Lepage.

La Thangue returned to England in 1886, where he helped to found the New English Art Club (NEAC) and exhibited his work there. He eventually settled at Haylands in Graffham, Sussex, though he also spent much time painting in southern Europe. His landscape paintings produced from these visits show a new interest in colour and bright light. This painting is clearly of a Mediterranean scene, although whether it depicts Provence, Liguria or the Balearic Islands - all of which he visited - is not clear.

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Collections Wall

Here you can see the intense light and cool shade around this Mediterranean well. As a ‘realist’ La Thangue attempted to represent his subject matter truthfully without using artistic conventions.