Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/philip-wilson-steer-1990" aria-label="More by Philip Wilson Steer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Philip Wilson Steer</a>
White Yacht
Bequeathed by George E. Healing 1953
boat, yacht
coast
England
England, South East
England, Southern
Hampshire
natural phenomena
places
Portchester - non-specific
reflection
sea
seascapes and coasts
society
sunshine
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
weather
<p>Montreuil-sur-Mer is about ten miles inland from Le Touquet (and so is not on the sea), and is the first large French town reached by travellers from Britain going to Paris by the direct road south from Boulogne. Steer had been there in 1889, when he painted two Monet-like pictures, one of poplar trees by the river and another of the town’s old fortifications. In 1907 he returned to spend the summer painting there, after a long interval during which he chose to paint in Britain, when he had gradually developed a style that in colouring and subject was closer to Turner and Constable than to the Impressionists. But that autumn, after his stay at Montreuil, he went on to Paris to see the Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in October, mounted after his death the previous year. Laughton has suggested that Steer’s wish to go to France in 1907 followed from a renewed interest in the Impressionists. There had been a large group show of the Impressionists in London in January 1905 at the Grafton Galleries, organised by the French dealer Durand Ruel, which included a number of early Cézannes.</p>
painting oil paint canvas
The White Yacht
support: 613 × 920 × 23 mm
frame: 788 × 1090 × 52 mm
Bequeathed by George E. Healing 1953
<p>Montreuil-sur-Mer is about ten miles inland from Le Touquet (and so is not on the sea), and is the first large French town reached by travellers from Britain going to Paris by the direct road south from Boulogne. Steer had been there in 1889, when he painted two Monet-like pictures, one of poplar trees by the river and another of the town’s old fortifications. In 1907 he returned to spend the summer <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> there, after a long interval during which he chose to paint in Britain, when he had gradually developed a style that in colouring and subject was closer to Turner and Constable than to the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Impressionism'"><span>Impressionists</span></a>. But that autumn, after his stay at Montreuil, he went on to Paris to see the Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in October, mounted after his death the previous year. Laughton has suggested that Steer’s wish to go to France in 1907 followed from a renewed interest in the Impressionists. There had been a large group show of the Impressionists in London in January 1905 at the Grafton Galleries, organised by the French dealer Durand Ruel, which included a number of early Cézannes. 
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<br/>Steer rented a house in Montreuil, taking with him three artist friends, Fred Brown (the Slade Professor, and his colleague), W.C. Coles (from Winchester School of Art) and Ronald Gray. Steer’s working procedure was to draw in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> in a sketchbook while trying to find a suitable view, then to make oil sketches out of doors. A larger scale painting was either completed back in his London studio from these, or may also have been begun out of doors on the spot. <i>The Church of Montreuil</i> is a large oil sketch, and was probably painted directly in front of the church. Steer considered such pictures as complete enough for sale, and exhibited this at his one man show at the Goupil Gallery in 1909.
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<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>D.S. MacColl, <i>Life Work and Setting of Philip Wilson Steer</i>, 1945, pp. 85-7, 209
<br/>Bruce Laughton<i>, Philip Wilson Steer 1860-1942</i>, 1971, pp. 98, 146 (cat. 400), reproduced pl. 185
<br/>Ysanne Holt, <i>Philip Wilson Steer, </i>Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan 1992, pp.110-12  
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<br/>David Jenkins 
<br/>May 2001
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Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p><b>N06185</b> THE WHITE YACHT 1912</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘P W Steer 1912’ b.l.
<br/>Canvas, 24×36 1/4 (61×92).
<br/>Bequeathed by George E. Healing 1953.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased from the artist by George Healing at the N.E.A.C. 1912.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> N.E.A.C., winter 1912 (150), as ‘The white yacht’; N.E.A.C., <i>Retrospective Exhibition</i>, January–February 1925 (129); Tate Gallery, April–July 1929 (160); National Gallery, June–August 1943 (56).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> MacColl, 1945, pp.91, 214.</p>
<p>A scene at Porchester in Hampshire, where Steer spent the summer of 1912.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
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Catalogue entry
2004-07-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
boat, yacht coast England England, South East England, Southern Hampshire natural phenomena places Portchester - non-specific reflection sea seascapes and coasts society sunshine transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions weather