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>
A Procession Yachts
Purchased 1922
adults
boat - non-specific
boat, yacht
Cowes - non-specific
England
England, South East
England, Southern
figure
Isle of Wight
people
places
sea
seascapes and coasts
society
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
<p>Wilson Steer was trained in France in the 1880s and 1890s, and he experimented with a range of Impressionist techniques. He exhibited his work at the Paris Salon, but in London his Impressionist pictures were greeted with vicious howls of critical scorn. This picture was begun at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The bright dashes of colour were inspired by the work of the French 'Divisionist' artists, Seurat and Pissarro, who made similar paintings of yachts in profile. Later Steer turned away from his French heroes and started to paint in the manner of Turner and Constable.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
2002-10-11
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2002-10-11
Whistler Sargent and Steer - Frist
Tate partnerships & programmes
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
2005-06-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-06-15
A Picture of Britain
Exhibition
23 June 2006 – 4 December 2006
2006-12-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-06-23
Philip Wilson Steer The British Impressionist
Collection based display
8 June 2021 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
8 July 2021 – 14 November 2021
2021-11-14
2021-07-08
Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai, China)
20 December 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
2021-12-20
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
25 February 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-02-25
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
12 July 2023 – 2 October 2023
2023-10-02
2023-07-12
National Art Center (Tokyo, Japan)
26 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
2023-10-26
Nakanoshima Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan)
2021-06-08
Light
Tate partnerships & programmes
A Procession of Yachts
support: 629 × 762 mm
frame: 783 × 920 × 58 mm
Purchased 1922
<p>Wilson Steer was trained in France in the  1880s and 1890s, and he experimented with a range of <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>Impressionist</span></a> techniques. He exhibited  his work at the Paris <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>Salon</span></a>, but in London his Impressionist pictures were greeted with vicious howls of critical scorn. This picture was begun  at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The bright dashes  of colour were inspired by the work of the French '<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/neo-impressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Neo-Impressionism'"><span>Divisionist</span></a>' artists, Seurat and Pissarro, who made similar <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>paintings</span></a> of yachts in profile. Later Steer turned away from his French heroes and started  to paint in the manner of Turner and Constable.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N03668</b> A PROCESSION OF YACHTS 1892–3</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘Steer 93.’ b.l.
<br/>Canvas, 24 3/4×30 (63×76).
<br/>Purchased from Miss Jane Ellen Harrison (Clarke Fund) 1922.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Miss Harrison from the artist 1893.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> N.E.A.C., November 1892 (96); Goupil Gallery, February–March 1894 (15); Tate Gallery, April–July 1929 (10).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> MacColl, 1945, pp.37, 46, 193, repr. pl.18b.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Artwork</i>, No.17, 1929, p.4.</p>
<p>Painted while the artist was on a vist to Cowes in the summer of 1892. 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> appears in the background of Augustus John's <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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of Miss Harrison painted in 1909 for Newnham College, Cambridge, where she lectured on classical archaeology and later Russian from 1898 until 1922. Although signed and dated 1893 this is 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> recorded by MacColl (<i>op. cit.</i>, p.193) as that exhibited at 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/n/new-english-art-club" title="Glossary definition for 'New English Art Club'"><span>N.E.A.C</span></a>., 1892, but there is evidence of considerable reworking by the artist, presumably in the winter of 1892–3. Another painting, ‘A Yacht Race’, 24×30 in., exhibited at the N.E.A.C., April 1893 (54), was purchased in 1897 by the Art Gallery of Western Australia on the advice of Sir George Clausen. This is an entirely different composition showing yachts strung out diagonally across the picture.</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
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults boat - non-specific boat, yacht Cowes - non-specific England England, South East England, Southern figure Isle of Wight people places sea seascapes and coasts society transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions