French masterpiece returning to Oldham
IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING BY LOCAL ARTIST WILL BE ON DISPLAY AT TOWN ART GALLERY
IT has been acquired for the nation at a cost of £1.5m and will soon be coming home - to Oldham.
The impressionist painting of two young girls gazing across a river as they wait for the ferryman, is by William Stott, who was proud of his roots.
He signed himself “of Oldham” because of his pride in his birth town and so he was not confused with another artist, Edward Stott, from Rochdale, who con- fusingly was chris- tened, William.
Tate Britain has bought Stott’s “Le Passeur” (The Ferryman) and the 1.8mwide work will go on display there until February 4 next year.
But it will then go on tour throughout the Britain, including Gallery Oldham.
Stott first studied at Manchester School of Art, then enrolled at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris in the autumn of 1879.
He later arrived at the artists’ colony recently established in the village of Grez-sur-Loing, where he painted Le Passeur in 1881. Among the artists working there was Alfred Sisley. Stott was a leading figure in the group of British artists who came under the influence of French naturalism in the late 19th century. Alison Smith, Tate’s lead curator of British art, said of Stott’s painting: “It is an astonishing work, yet very subtle at the same time. “It is a lovely picture to look at and technically it is a tour de force, but it is very calming as well, very meditative.” The setting for the work is the River Loire at dusk. It was shown at the Paris Salon where it received a winning a medal. The Aberdeen merchant and early photographer John Forbes White bought the painting, and after White, the painting was owned by another Scottish collector and then Lady Elizabeth Longman, a bridesmaid to the Queen. It has been acquired thanks to gifts from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Art Fund and the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation. It has gone on display at Alison Smith Tate Britain alongside works by Stott’s contemporaries, including Edward Stott, George Clausen and James Guthrie.
Because it has been privately owned for so long it has often been written out of the story of British Impressionism.
Alex Farquharson, who is Director of Tate Britain, said: “We are delighted to be showing this significant work at Tate Britain before it tours to St Davids Pembrokeshire, Southampton, the artist’s home town of Oldham and Aberdeen.”