Mermaid Beach

‘Mermaid Beach’ by Henry Dawson RBA (1811-1878). The painting – which depicts a girl waiting for fishermen to unload their catch at Folkstone, with the White Cliffs of Dover in the background – is signed by the artist with monogram and presented in a fine English water-gilded landscape frame.

The title of the painting refers to both the shape of the beach – which resembles the tail of mermaid - and to the young fish seller with the creel basket waiting by the newly landed boats hoping to have first pick of their catch. Throughout the 18th and 19th century, when local girls left school, they would be given a woven willow basket by their mothers and begin their working lives selling fish. As well as buying from market, girls would also wait on Mermaid beach for the fishing boats to return at dawn. Today, it is considered to be one of the most picturesque sands on the South Coast of England.

Academy Fine Paintings is fully conversant with the legal exemptions which, under the supreme law of the U.S. Constitution, enable us to ship paintings to America free of reciprocal trade tariffs. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is always complimentary. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished.

• More about the life and career of Henry Dawson can be found at the News & Articles page of the Academy Fine Paintings website.

Between 1838 and 1875 Henry Dawson exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists, to which he was elected a full member in 1875. During this period his fame earned him the patronage of several of the most important art collectors of Victorian Britain, among them John Miller, James Orrock, and John Burton, all of whom owned important works by J.M.W. Turner. Following the death of the latter in 1851, Burton told Henry Dawson that his “powers are (now) not equalled by any living or working man."

In 2000, Dawson's 1857 painting of a sunset over ‘The New Houses of Parliament, Westminster’ sold at Phillips in London for £185,000. Today, works by Dawson feature in the collections of the Walker Gallery in Liverpool and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Dimensions: (framed) 87cm x 114cm (34¼” x 44¾”)
Dimensions: (canvas only) 67cm x 93cm (26¼” x 36½”)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Private UK collection.
Literature: ‘The Life of Henry Dawson, Landscape Painter’ (1891) by Alfred Dawson.
Presentation: Gilded English landscape frame.
Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.