Under Nagar’s bonnet
John Vincent explores the history of an Edwardian oil painting... and learns of an unusual name for residents of a Yorkshire seaside village.
The catalogue description reads as follows: Lot 18, Drying Nets at Runswick Bay, an oil on canvas by Staithes Group painter Mark Senior (1862-1927). But dig a little deeper and there’s an interesting local story behind the brief notes accompanying the image of a woman in a long black and grey dress and white bonnet.
It turns out her name was Peggy Calvert, who was related to Senior, acted as his housekeeper and sat for him many times.
The identification came from
Mrs Calvert’s grand-daughter, Jean Malcolmson, now 87 and apparently the oldest resident of the fishing village near Whitby. After seeing the picture advertising the sale, she contacted Scarborough auctioneers David Duggleby to say her grandmother was mending, not drying the nets.
The 48cm by 58cm canvas was sold at Duggleby’s Spring Art Sale – to a local buyer for an above estimate £5,520 – with the new title Mrs Peggy Calvert Mending Nets at Runswick Bay.
Mrs Malcolmson’s entire family was born at Runswick Bay. Her mother’s side, including Peggy, lived in the White House, the largest of the buildings in the background of the painting. She explained that the painting showed what was the Village Green (now the car park), which was where fishing nets were dried and mended and from where the boats were hauled.
She is also the great-niece of Mark Senior, who was born in Ossett and used his house in Runswick Bay as a second home, spending most of his time in Leeds. As Peggy lived in Runswick permanently, it made sense for her to look after his house and would explain why she appeared in so many of his paintings.
Dominic Cox, of Duggleby’s, says the painting is not dated but would appear to be from about 1905 as this was the time he undertook other pictures of Peggy – including the one in Leeds Art Gallery, reproduced here, sitting stern-faced in a chair.
It is unclear how much Peggy would have been paid but in his book, The Staithes Group, Peter Phillips writes:
“The locals provided a constant source of inspiration. They were also ideal models showing no artificial reactions to the repeated instructions... The fees were very small but provided a welcome income, particularly for the children.”
Incidentally, Mrs Malcolmson refers to herself as a Nagar. I suspect that few people living outside the immediate area will know that this is an old term for a resident of Runswick Bay and is referred to in the title of a 1973 book by Jazzer Johnson, The Nagars of Runswick. The original fishing village was almost completely destroyed by a landslide in 1682. Remarkably, there were no fatalities, as the village was alerted by two mourners at a wake. The village was rebuilt, slightly further to the south, perched on the side of cliffs.