.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Ethel Carrick Fox was born in Middlesex, England and grew up in London, the second daughter of an affluent family. In 1897 she enrolled at the Slade School in London, and studied under professors including Henry Tonks and Frederick Brown. The Slade was one of the few art schools in London to accept women at this time. After graduating in 1903 from the Slade School, Carrick continued her education at the artist colony of Newlyn in Cornwall where she focussed on plein-air painting. At some stage in Cornwall she moved to the more avant-garde artist colony of St Ives, and it was during this period that Carrick met Emmanuel Phillips Fox. In 1905 they married, and shortly after their wedding they settled in Paris where they lived at 65 Boulevard Arago (as noted on the label on the reverse of the present work), near the Luxembourg Gardens.
The Fox family enjoyed travelling and often spent summers painting at the fashionable French beachside locations of Trouville, Royan, Deauville, St Malô and Dinard. In 1910 they are recorded as having spent time at the resort of Royan, probably where the present work was painted. These locations inspired Carrick and she delighted in capturing the bourgeoisie in their elegant and leisurely settings during the Belle Epoque. 'Carrick was fascinated by the French preoccupation with high fashion at the beach... [Figures are] silhouetted against what became Carrick's specialty, painting the colourful red and white striped bathing tents for hire on French beaches. ... From [1909] until the mid-1920s she paints highly original beach scenes in brilliant colours showing French women parading in fashionable clothes often accompanied by children and nannies.' (S. de Vries, Ethel Carrick Fox Travels and Triumphs of a Post-Impressionist, Brisbane, 1997, pp.72-73 and 148)
Carrick and Phillips Fox frequently painted together on these trips, sharing the same palette, supports and brushes, and consequently a number of their works closely resemble each other. The present work relates to E. Phillip Fox's '(On the sand)', 1910 (National Gallery of Australia). Here we see the same small boys in blue tops and boater hats in the foreground, and a nurse with young children sheltering from the sun under the red and white striped tent. Both works have been painted on panel, and both employ the 'tonking' technique (named after Henry Tonks), whereby the artist applies paint in dabs before blotting it to achieve even and fast drying. 'Husband and wife appear virtually to have shared a joint artistic venture in those years. ... The best way to think about their work [from this period] is in terms of a marriage in which they were equals, each borrowing from the other, neither being at all possessive about matters of style and subject.' (Mary Eagle, private communications, 4 Oct. 2017)
The Fox family enjoyed travelling and often spent summers painting at the fashionable French beachside locations of Trouville, Royan, Deauville, St Malô and Dinard. In 1910 they are recorded as having spent time at the resort of Royan, probably where the present work was painted. These locations inspired Carrick and she delighted in capturing the bourgeoisie in their elegant and leisurely settings during the Belle Epoque. 'Carrick was fascinated by the French preoccupation with high fashion at the beach... [Figures are] silhouetted against what became Carrick's specialty, painting the colourful red and white striped bathing tents for hire on French beaches. ... From [1909] until the mid-1920s she paints highly original beach scenes in brilliant colours showing French women parading in fashionable clothes often accompanied by children and nannies.' (S. de Vries, Ethel Carrick Fox Travels and Triumphs of a Post-Impressionist, Brisbane, 1997, pp.72-73 and 148)
Carrick and Phillips Fox frequently painted together on these trips, sharing the same palette, supports and brushes, and consequently a number of their works closely resemble each other. The present work relates to E. Phillip Fox's '(On the sand)', 1910 (National Gallery of Australia). Here we see the same small boys in blue tops and boater hats in the foreground, and a nurse with young children sheltering from the sun under the red and white striped tent. Both works have been painted on panel, and both employ the 'tonking' technique (named after Henry Tonks), whereby the artist applies paint in dabs before blotting it to achieve even and fast drying. 'Husband and wife appear virtually to have shared a joint artistic venture in those years. ... The best way to think about their work [from this period] is in terms of a marriage in which they were equals, each borrowing from the other, neither being at all possessive about matters of style and subject.' (Mary Eagle, private communications, 4 Oct. 2017)