How We Caught the Pilchards

Hemy was one of the many late Victorian artsits who came to specialise in a combination of marine and genre painting, combining views of ships and boats wiht the human interest of sailors and fishermen at work. His early work is minute in style, as he was taught by the Pre-Raphaelite William Bell Scott. This watercolour is more typical of his many later works, aiming at an elaborately finished realism, making little distinction between the techniques of oil and watercolour painting.