Fishing scene, with a royal yacht near the shore RMG BHC1052

Fishing scene, with a royal yacht near the shore
(Updated June 2013) A scene which may be based on the topography of what is now Bembridge Harbour (formerly Brading Haven) in the Isle of Wight, looking south-west. It has been suggested that the church seen in the distance, centre left, is St Mary's, Brading, and the tower on the right is the Norman one of old St Helen's church. Most of this church collapsed in 1703 though the tower remained in a ruined state until 1784 when the seaward side was bricked up to strengthen it and painted white as a sea-mark. The other problem regarding the location is that, were it really Brading Haven, the view is inland - not seaward as it appears- and it would have been impossible for the larger shipping shown in the background to be where it is: Brading itself is well inland over two miles from St Helen's and overlooking the valley of the small River Yar, not a harbour (although the Haven was once a Roman galley anchorage). However, if the picture is in fact a capriccio (imaginary view) only inspired by the location, the village to the left of the 'Norman tower' may be intended as St Helen's with Ashley Down behind, though this did not have the enclosed harbour in which masts and sails appear behind the tower. There is a beached hoy in the left foreground and a royal yacht coming to anchor and firing a salute, centre right. A ship’s boat is moving between the yacht and the shore. A small anchored boat with a canopy over it can be seen in the foreground on the right, with a fisherman in it with his net. This appears to be similar to a Thames peter-boat (which Swaine would certainly have known) and trailing a floating fish-keep, for keeping the catch alive until landed. At the water’s edge behind is a woman carrying two buckets on a yoke. On the shoreline on the left, five men are hauling in a fishing net. Large Royal Naval warships (two deckers or bigger and at least one a flagship) lie in the background off the distant church, which indicates deeper water than in the foreground. Such ships would often have been seen off St Helen's, but only to the east behind the artist's position, where St Helen's Roads was a major sheltered anchorage on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight. On the shore behind the yacht firing the salute is a shipyard, with what appears to be a warship on the stocks. To the left of the yacht, and above its gunsmoke, are the spars and sails of a naval cutter, and of a sheer-hulk undoubtedly connected with the shipyard shown. The painting is signed and dated ‘F.Swaine 1768’, on a floating plank lower right, and is probably one of two sea-port 'calm' views or two 'landscapes with shipping', themselves among a larger number of works that he exhibited with the Free Society of Artists in London that year.

Fishing scene, with a yacht beached near the shore