Collection Online
Fishing boats leaving Boulogne Harbour

Fishing boats leaving Boulogne Harbour
(c. 1875)

Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
68.7 × 103.0 cm
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.r.: Th Weber
Accession Number
p.310.3-1
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1884
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
Not on display
Subjects (general)
Marines and Seascapes
Subjects (specific)
boats Boulogne (inhabited place) fishing vessels France (nation) harbours piers (marine landings) waves (natural events) wind (weather phenomena)
Provenance
With The French Gallery (dealer), London, c.  1875–1884; brought by Henry Wallis (French Gallery proprietor) to Melbourne for exhibition, 1884; from where purchased for the NGV, 1884.
Frame
Original, by Cole Bros., London

Frame

Essentially neo-classical in form, the frame carries an empire-style element in the interlaced pattern of the fluting in the scotia. The sections that make up the frame are likely to have come from a trade catalogue and been cut to length. Frame profiles like this one are abundant in trade catalogues and the method of construction suggests the source of the moulding. The frame is likely to have been put on the painting at the time of purchase, suggesting the painting was acquired through London. It is more common for NGV paintings painted in Europe to carry frames of European manufacture.

Framemaker
Cole Bros.

2 Percy Street, Rathbone Place, London
Date
(1884)
Materials

The basic form of the frame is a wooden profile, mitred at the corners. The mitres are covered on the face with leaf work and re-enforced on the reverse with blocks glued across the mitres. The torus, of imbricated laurel and berry, is notable for the extended stems on the leaves, giving a vine-like appearance to the border. The torus is not centred. Each frame member has been cut from a long length and then joined to form this frame. The decorative work of the inner scotia is pressed composition. These sections are oil gilded. The two taenia and the small cavetto near the torus are burnished on a dark grey bole, as are the straps at each corner of the torus. The slip is matt water gilded with a high degree of finish. The joins in the leaves are barely visible. There is a small, sanded flat near the sight edge to the slip.

Frame Condition

Good original condition; retains original articulation of gilded surfaces. The composition of the torus is cracked and there are small losses in the sections of ornament.

Dimensions
102.0 x 138.5 x 11.0 cm; sight 64.5 x 100.0 cm