Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/charles-conder-934" aria-label="More by Charles Conder" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Charles Conder</a>
Spring by Sea
Bequeathed by Hans Velten 1931
adults
architecture
bathing / swimming
beach
blossom
boat, rowing
boat, sailing
coast
Dorset
England
England, South West
England, Southern
female
leisure and pastimes
nudes
people
places
recreational activities
sea
seascapes and coasts
seasons
society
spring
Swanage - non-specific
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
woman
<p>Conder was trained in Australia and Paris, before returning to his native London. He liked to paint the South Coast, sometimes making views of a real place, and at other times, as in this painting, inventing an imaginary reminiscence of a place. The background and atmosphere look like Swanage in Dorset, where Conder often stayed. The figures and the flowering cherry trees in the foreground are a fantasy, and an evocation of 'Spring'. In sprawling half naked, brandishing a mirror and wearing imaginary cloaks, these girls recall the eighteenth-century fantasies of Watteau. They also correspond to the melancholy mood of the novels of Marcel Proust, one of which is centred on a 'little band' of young girls on holiday by the sea.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
Spring by the Sea
support: 506 × 918 mm
frame: 747 × 1155 × 50 mm
Bequeathed by Hans Velten 1931
<p>Conder was trained in Australia and Paris, before returning to his native London. He liked to paint the South Coast, sometimes making views of a real place, and at other times, as in this <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>, inventing an imaginary reminiscence of a place. The background and atmosphere look like Swanage in Dorset, where Conder often stayed. The figures and the flowering cherry trees in the foreground are a fantasy, and an evocation of 'Spring'. In sprawling half naked, brandishing a mirror and wearing imaginary cloaks, these girls recall the eighteenth-century fantasies of Watteau. They also correspond to the melancholy mood of the novels of Marcel Proust, one of which is centred on a 'little band' of young girls on holiday by the sea.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04578</b> SPRING BY THE SEA <i>c.</i> 1905
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 20×36 (51×91·5).
<br/>Bequeathed by Hans Velten 1931.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Hans Velten from the Leicester Galleries 1913.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Leicester Galleries, January 1913 (55); Tate Gallery, July–September 1927 (100).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Gibson, 1914, p.47, repr. pl.51; Rothenstein, 1938, pp.47, 220, 259, repr. facing p.208.</p>
<p>Although the setting is reminiscent of the ‘Swanage Bay’ series, it is quite possible that this picture was not painted directly from nature but from memory, with the flower-wreathed female figures added. The date has been suggested by Rothenstein, <i>op. cit.</i>, p.47. Compare this <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> with <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/conder-gibraltar-from-algeciras-n04939" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04939</span></a>, for which the date 1905 is documented.</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, I</p>
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Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture bathing / swimming beach blossom boat, rowing boat, sailing coast Dorset England England, Southern England, South West female leisure and pastimes nudes people places recreational activities sea seascapes and coasts seasons society spring Swanage - non-specific townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions woman