Henry Scott Tuke

1858-1929

European Artist

Tuke was born in York, England in 1858 to Quaker parents and moved with them to London in 1874. He enrolled in the Slade School of Art. After graduating he traveled to Italy in 1880, and then lived in Paris till 1883. Tuke returned to Britain and moved to Falmouth, a fishing port in Cornwall. He bought a fishing boat and converted it into a floating studio and living quarters. Tuke produced saleable works on narrative or historical themes. His handling of paint became freer, and he began using bold, fresh color. One of his best known paintings from this period is August Blue, a study of four nude youths bathing from a boat. He was also well known as a portraitist, and maintained a London studio to work on his commissions. Technically, Tuke favored rough, visible brushstrokes, at a time when a smooth, polished finish was favored by fashionable painters and critics. He had a strong sense of color and excelled in the depiction of natural light, particularly the soft, fragile sunlight of the English summer.