Since the mid-1700s, artists have looked towards the sea as a constant source of inspiration for their work. Some artists were drawn to wild, solitary, remote from what the poet, Edward Thomas called ‘the parochialism of humanity’, and wide open places, and others to flotsam and jetsam found on the beach.
Many of the artists in this exhibition identified themselves with a particular stretch of the shoreline, a particular viewpoint from the edge of the sea, and in painting it, they tended to shape anew the way we see it.
Winter Sea IV 1958
Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley (1921–1963)
Oil on board
H 53.4 x W 78.8 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
High Tide, a Winter Afternoon 1961
Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley (1921–1963)
Oil on hardboard
H 117 x W 235.7 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Iona, Grey Day 1927
Samuel John Peploe (1871–1935)
Oil on canvas
H 50.8 x W 61.3 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Blue Sea, Iona 1927
Samuel John Peploe (1871–1935)
Oil on canvas
H 51 x W 61.3 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Stormy Weather, Iona c.1929
Samuel John Peploe (1871–1935)
Oil on canvas
H 51.2 x W 61 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
The White Calm, Ailsa Craig from Port an Righ 1901
William McTaggart (1835–1910)
Oil on canvas
H 119.9 x W 156.2 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Bird's Eye View of a Beach c.1976
Sylvia Wishart (1936–2008)
Oil on board
H 101.4 x W 126.8 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
The Slipway at Peniche, Portugal 1948
Tristram Paul Hillier (1905–1983)
Oil on canvas
H 64.3 x W 95.3 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Visibility Moderate 1934
Edward Alexander Wadsworth (1889–1949)
Tempera on panel
H 63.8 x W 89 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Christopher Wood (1901–1930)
Oil on board
H 41.5 x W 56.2 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Alfred Wallis (1855–1942)
Oil on cardboard
H 35.1 x W 47 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
The Beach, Largo, Fife, at Low Tide
George Leslie Hunter (1877–1931)
Oil on board
H 22 x W 30.1 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
On the Beach, Étaples, France c.1905–1906
John Duncan Fergusson (1874–1961)
Oil on board
H 18.7 x W 24.1 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Scheveningen Sands 1884
Alfred Emile Léopold Joseph Victor Stevens (1823–1906)
Oil on canvas
H 27.2 x W 35.2 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
Explore artists in this Curation
View all 13-
John Duncan Fergusson (1874–1961) -
Tristram Paul Hillier (1905–1983) -
Samuel John Peploe (1871–1935) -
George Leslie Hunter (1877–1931) -
William McTaggart (1835–1910) -
Alfred Emile Léopold Joseph Victor Stevens (1823–1906) -
Edward Alexander Wadsworth (1889–1949) -
Sylvia Wishart (1936–2008) -
Will Maclean (b.1941) -
Martin Rayner (1947–2004) - View all 13