Francis Danby, 'A Boat-Builder's Yard', about 1840
On loan: Gere Collection Paintings to the Ashmolean (2024 - 2026), The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK About the work
Overview
This small study shows a cluttered boat-builder's yard in which casks, baskets, boards, ropes, levers and pulleys appear to be strewn about haphazardly. Sunlight glints off surfaces, while quick touches of pale colour capture the humid atmosphere of a waterside site.
Danby's oil sketches are direct and immediate records of local sights that caught his eye, quite different from the elegantly composed poetical landscapes and biblical subjects on which his contemporary reputation was based.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Boat-Builder's Yard
- Artist
- Francis Danby
- Artist dates
- 1793 - 1861
- Date made
- about 1840
- Medium and support
- Oil on paper laid on card
- Dimensions
- 12.2 × 18.5 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- The Gere Collection, on long-term loan to the National Gallery
- Inventory number
- L817
- Location
- On loan: Gere Collection Paintings to the Ashmolean (2024 - 2026), The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK
- Image copyright
- The Gere Collection, on long-term loan to the National Gallery, © Private collection 2000. Used by permission
- Collection
- Main Collection
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.