A Cadet (possibly T. E. Lawrence) at Newporth Beach, near Falmouth
Henry Scott Augustus Tuke, RA (York 1858 - Falmouth 1929)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1921 (inscribed 1930) - 1922 (Lawrence's face added)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
425 x 527 mm (16 3/4 x 20 3/4 in)
Order this imageCollection
Clouds Hill, Dorset (Accredited Museum)
NT 628439
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, A Cadet (possibly T. E. Lawrence) at Newporth Beach, near Falmouth by Henry Scott Augustus Tuke (York 1858 - Falmouth 1929), signed H. S. Tuke and inscribed (posthumously) 1930. A possible sketch for his well-known 'Morning Splendour, 1921', other studies of which are in the Tuke Collection, Royal Cornwall Polytecnic Society. The figure seated on the beach is a soldier, in khaki, undoing his bootlaces and a companion is already swimming in the sea. The soldier's cap and jacket are on the sand. The face of the soldier, seen in profile, appears to have been altered to that of T. E. Lawrence. It is speculatively thought to represent Lawrence's fantasy of having run away from home to join the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1905. It is thought to have been originally painted in 1921 and Lawrence's face added in June 1922.
Provenance
Sold as as "Portrait of 'Gray'" to ' R.F.C. Scott', who is believed to be Sydney Lomer (1880-1926); bought or given to T.E.Lawrence in 1926 with its companion, 'Small bathing picture' which was given by him to Clare Sydney Smith; at Clouds Hill at the time of T. E. Lawrence's death in 1935; given to the National Trust with the house by Mr A. W. Lawrence, as a memorial to his brother, in 1937
Credit line
Clouds Hill, The T. E. Lawrence Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: bottom right: H.S. TUKE 1922 (no longer legible as such as possibly tampered by artist) (signed and dated)
Makers and roles
Henry Scott Augustus Tuke, RA (York 1858 - Falmouth 1929), artist
References
Charles Grosvenor, An Iconography: The Portraits of T. E. Lawrence, Pasadena 1988, pp.114 - 15 no. 53