This appears to be a view of a small harbour, with a red brick building on top of a spit of land to the left, and a set of steps. Behind this, the funnels of tugs or fishing boats at angles suggest they are above the tide line. The harbour side curls round to the right with an array of buildings, including houses and warehouses.

On close inspection, McEvoy's best work in watercolour often reveals layers of complexity and detail. The present work, with its carefully drawn and painted angles and plains of roofs, walls and doors, the jostling of funnels and recession of sandbanks, the sense of a weak sun breaking through morning mist, and perhaps most importantly the abstract patterns of marks, of scrubbing out, of brush and pencil, all give themselves up only to the patient watcher, like a Debussy prelude or a passage from a Joseph Conrad novel.

Dimensions:

Height 28 cm / 11 "

Width 38 cm / 15 "

Framed height 45 cm / 17 "

Framed width 54 cm / 21 ¹⁄₂"

Year

c.1909-12

Medium

Watercolour and pencil

Signed

McEvoy Studio Stamp

Provenance

Benjamin Wyndham Theodore Vint (1882-1959), Commercial Bank Buildings, Bradford; with Abbott & Holder; Lord Patrick and Lady Cormack, Minster Yard, Lincoln

EXHIBITIONS

Possibly the exhibition of watercolours and drawings by Modern Artists loaned by Wyndham Theodore Vint at Brighton Public Art Galleries, 8 May to 2 June 1937, which included four McEvoys. Of these 32, Landscape or 33 Water-colour sketch might be the present work