Notes

Thomas Baines, from King’s Lynn on the Norfolk coast, sailed to the Cape in 1842 as a steerage passenger on the three-masted schooner Olivia. By the mid-1840s, after stints as a house decorator and carriage maker, he was painting portraits and popular Cape Town landmarks for an undemanding local market. He also found himself in a groove of making marine studies – recording the comings and goings in Table Bay – often with the iconic silhouettes of Devil’s Peak and Table Mountain as romantic backdrops. Eager for some adventure, and particularly keen to attach himself to exploration tours of the interior, in February 1848 he sailed for Algoa Bay, and then reached Grahamstown by ox-wagon.

Except for a brief trading and hunting trip to the Colesberg area with brothers William and George Liddle, Baines was largely based in Grahamstown between June 1848 and August 1849. During this limbo period he could only imagine the famous expeditions that lay ahead of him. Struggling financially, he continued to take on commissions, and painted several Cape Town scenes from sketches and from memory. The present lot certainly comes from this group, and had much in common, compositionally at least, with the celebrated painting of Sir Henry Bottinger [sic] landing from the steamer ‘Haddington’ 27 January 1847, now in the William Fehr Collection. Following a recognisable formula, Baines positioned a brig to the left of centre with its sails unfurled, allowing a wide enough perspective to show the famous panorama: from Devil’s Peak to the Twelve Apostles. Closer to shore, more than a dozen vessels, some barely silhouettes, were set at anchor or on the move, while the growing capital of the Cape Colony – see the Castle and St George’s Church? – also came into view. Typical Baines devices included the nearby flotsam, as well as gulls, skimming low over the swells, their reflections painted with flecks of white, gold and cream. The water was painted with some confidence, using shades of green, mustard, grey and teal. The artist also set up a fabulous textural contrast between the taut canvas sails and the shifting shadows across Table Mountain in the distance. To the right of the composition, in a much smaller vessel, are three men struggling with sails while, sitting astern, a Cape Malay figure, identified by his toering hat, has his hand on the tiller.

Provenance

Mr John and Bettie Levison, and thence by descent.