'Girls Running, Walberswick Pier', Philip Wilson Steer

Artwork details

Artist

Philip Wilson Steer (1860‑1942)

Title

Girls Running, Walberswick Pier

Date 1888-94

MediumOil paint on canvas

Dimensionssupport: 629 x 927 mm frame: 860 x 1160 x 95 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by Lady Augustus Daniel 1951

Reference

N06008

On display at Tate Britain

Theme: BP Walk through British Art

Room: 1840

Display caption

Steer made many visits to Walberswick in Suffolk, where he had friends. He completed a number of paintings of the beach there that are among the most authentically Impressionist works produced in Britain. Here he captures the rich warmth of late afternoon sunlight but, unlike the French Impressionist Monet, he was just as interested in the figures as in their setting. Steer has reworked the dashed, broken colour of the paint surface extensively. The two girls were originally holding hands, and in their shadow they still are. This kind of picture was seen as uncompromisingly avant-garde. One critic in 1892 even described such works at the New English Art Club exhibition as 'evil'.

September 2004