Charles Napier Hemy 1841-1917

A. M. Napier Hemy
Private Collection

London, The Fine Art Society, 1918, no. 58

STRUCTURE Original canvas. PAINT SURFACE The canvas appears to be in good original condition. There are some small surface marks to the upper left and upper right of the canvas and a very small area of repair work to the upper edge of the painting. Light stretcher marks are visible around the outside of the canvas. ULTRAVIOLET Ultraviolet light reveals no additional re-touching or repair work. FRAME Held in a gilt wood frame.
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The title of this fascinating work suggests it is one of the many sketches and studies that resulted in Pilchards  (Tate Britain).  This is undoubtedly one of Hemy's best known and most successful works receiving critical and public acclaim when exhibited at The Royal Academy in 1897. 

Close inspection however suggests the present painting in fact relates to an earlier work entitled How we Caught the Pilchards (Fig.1) executed in 1885 and now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.  The composition clearly displays the process of Seine netting, where the school of pilchards are encircled by the Seine net, which is gradually hauled in between the Seine boat and two 'followers'.  Thus the catch is slowly brought to the surface and baskets used to land it.
In 1880 Hemy lost his first wife to meningitis but was soon re-married to Amy Freeman whose family owned and ran successful quarries in Devon and Cornwall.  They settled at Churchfield, a grand house overlooking Falmouth Harbour and Philip, the first of ten children, was born the following year. 
Hemy converted a forty-foot Seine boat, the Vanderveld, into a floating studio and it was from here that he would evoke the sea and its elements which such mastery and power.