Lot 179: Charles William Wyllie (1853-1923)

Charles William Wyllie (1853-1923)
By the Canal
signed 'Charles W Wyllie' (lower right)
oil on canvas
53 x 39¼ in. (134.6 x 99.7 cm.)

with Richard Green, London.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 6 March 1987, lot 38.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 14 June 2000, lot 24.

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This is a much larger view, taken from further along the canal tow path, of the scene depicted in Canal Life, which Wyllie exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886, no. 759. The colour and constant activity that characterised Britain's canals in the last quarter of the 19th Century, with its barges carrying grain from the countryside and industrial goods from the towns, proved a constant source of inspiration to the artist, some of whose other Academy exhibits were entitled Past the Old Town (1887), Going into the Lock (1899) and Sunset on the Canal (1900). The present picture, one of Wyllie's finest, also draws attention to how the delicate balance between town and country was then being threatened by increasing urbanisation and industrialisation. The country girls to the left, with their basket of goods and standing under a tree in blossom, are shown in counterpoint to the life of the town further up the river.

Wyllie came from an artistic family. His father William Morison Wyllie exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1852 and 1887, and also supported the British Institution, Suffolk Street, the Grosvenor Gallery, and the New Gallery. His son supported the same venues, and was held in high esteem by his public and his peers although his reputation has perhaps been eclipsed posthumously by his elder brother, William Lionel, the well-known painter and etcher of marine and coastal subjects, and recorder of the movements of the British fleet. The brothers shared a fondness for painting harbours, views on the Thames, and the English coast.