Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/henry-scott-tuke-555" aria-label="More by Henry Scott Tuke" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Henry Scott Tuke</a>
All Hands to Pumps
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1889
adults
group
groups
man
mast
objects
people
rigging
sailor
sea
seascapes and coasts
ship, sailing
society
storm
tools and machinery
trading and commercial
transport: water
water pump
weather
work and occupations
<p>This picture shows a ship that has lost one of its sails, and is being swamped by a storm. The crew desperately pump water out of the hull. Tuke painted this scene aboard an old French brig anchored in Falmouth Harbour. He had lived in Falmouth as a boy, but in 1885 decided to leave London to settle there permanently encouraged by the Newlyn School of open-air painters. In Cornwall he focused on painting the male nude in the open air but also produced marine subjects like this.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
10 May 2008 – 12 July 2008
2008-07-12
10 May 2008 – 12 July 2008
2008-07-12
2008-05-10
Royal Cornwall Museum (Truro, UK)
http://www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk
2008-05-10
Catching the Light: A Retrospective of Henry Scott Tuke
Loan-out
20 June 2009 – 12 September 2009
2009-09-12
20 June 2009 – 12 September 2009
2009-09-12
2009-06-20
Penlee House Gallery & Museum (Penzance, UK)
2009-06-20
The Brotherhood of the Palette
Loan-out
14 June 2014 – 6 September 2014
2014-09-06
14 June 2014 – 6 September 2014
2014-09-06
2014-06-14
Penlee House Gallery & Museum (Penzance, UK)
2014-06-14
Model Citizens: Myths and Realities
Loan-out
7 June 2021 – 20 November 2021
2021-11-20
7 June 2021 – 12 September 2021
2021-09-12
2021-06-07
Watts Gallery - Artists’ Village (Compton, UK)
http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk
18 September 2021 – 20 November 2021
2021-11-20
2021-09-18
Falmouth Art Gallery (Falmouth, UK)
2021-06-07
Henry Scott Tuke
Loan-out
All Hands to the Pumps
support: 1854 × 1397 mm
frame: 2243 × 1805 × 105 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1889
<div class="text">
<p>This picture shows a ship that has lost one of its sails, and is being swamped by a storm. The crew desperately pump water out of the hull. Tuke painted this scene aboard an old French brig anchored in Falmouth Harbour. He had lived in Falmouth as a boy, but in 1885 decided to leave London to settle there permanently encouraged by the Newlyn School of open-air painters. In Cornwall he focused on painting the male nude in the open air but also produced marine subjects like this.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-11-15T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N01618</b> ALL HANDS TO THE PUMPS 1888–9
<br/>
<br/>Inscr. ‘H. S. Tuke. 1889’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 73×55 (185·5×140).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1889.
<br/><i>Exh:</i>
R.A., 1889 (464); R.A., <i>Late Members</i>, winter 1933 (286).
<br/><i>Lit:</i>
C. Kains-Jackson in <i>Magazine of Art</i>, 1902, pp.338 and 342–3, repr. p.339; <i>Art Journal</i>, 1907, pp.358–9, repr.; Sainsbury, 1933, pp.86–8.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Sir Edward J. Poynter, <i>The National Gallery</i>, III, 1900, p.283.</p>
<p>At the time 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> this picture Tuke was living aboard an old French brigatine, the <i>Julie</i>, anchored in Falmouth Harbour. In a letter to his mother, dated 27 September 1888 (quoted by Sainsbury, <i>loc. cit.</i>), he noted ‘...I am just ordering a stretcher for my great pumping picture which is to be rather a big venture, about ten figures altogether. Unfortunately they come rather small, only about 2 ft. high, tho’ the picture is to be 6 ft. by 4 1/2; all this is quite contrary to your notions of my doing small pictures, but I am rather of Mr Bartlett's opinion that “the big uns get yer name up, Tooke”. Only seven instead of ten figures are included in the final <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>, a reduction which allowed greater scale for each figure. Tuke owned a small fleet of sailing and rowing boats from which he painted studies of boats and shipping in Falmouth Bay. ‘All Hands to the Pumps’ was finished by the middle of March 1889.</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/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults group groups man mast objects people rigging sailor sea seascapes and coasts ship, sailing society storm tools and machinery trading and commercial transport: water water pump weather work and occupations