Richard Harry Carter (British, 1839–1911)

Richard Harry Carter (British, 1839–1911)

A Little Potato Garden, Cornish Coast

Oil on Canvas

• Signed lower left.  Signed again and inscribed with the title on the canvas overlap verso.
• There are 9 paintings by this artist in the British National Art Collection.
• Painting - 52cm x 81.5cm
• Frame - 66cm x 94cm 

Lot Notes

A superb example of the work of Cornish artist Richard Harry Carter depicting a scene on the coast of Cornwall with women working a potato garden with boats at sea beyond.  A fine and rare example of the artist's work in this medium.  Signed lower left, signed again and inscribed verso.

Condition

In very fine condition.  The canvas not lined, torn, patched or repaired.  Clean, most attractive, well framed and ready to hang.

Artist Information

Richard Harry Carter was born in Truro, Cornwall, the son of John and Elizabeth Carter. His father was a naval pensioner who had died by 1851 when Richard Harry Carter was an apprentice stationer living at Truro. By 1861 he was a clerk in the copper office in Truro. He painted scenes mainly in Cornwall and Scotland, his earliest recorded works being in 1864. He exhibited at the RA and RI from 1864 and at other leading London Galleries. In 1866 he married Ellen Dunn at Truro who became a professor of music. He illustrated J T Tregellas' book of 1879 Peeps into the Haunts and Homes .... of Cornwall. By 1884 they had moved to Falmouth, & by 1891 they had moved to London and in that year he held an exhibition entitled 'The Shetland Isles' at Arthur Tooth and Sons Galleries in The Haymarket. By 1894 he was exhibiting from Petersfield, Hampshire. At the 1895 Opening Exhibition at Newlyn he showed watercolours of Cornish coastal scenes. By 1896 he had moved to Plymouth and by 1901 RH alone was living as a boarder with a fisherman and his family at Sennen Cove. In his later years he took to painting in oils and did less work in watercolour. Carter was the fellow artist who set off with Walter Langley in July 1904 for Holland, staying at Volendam on the Zuider Zee. There they joined up, and stayed for almost a month, with a flourishing colony of artists led by two younger members of the Hague School, Willy Sluiter and Albert Newhuys. A group of his representative paintings are in the fine art collection of the Royal Cornwall Museum (RCM) at Truro. He died on 7 February, 1911, at Sennen, Cornwall (GRO) at the age of 71.