Ernest Procter 1886-1935

STRUCTURE This picture is unlined and in very good condition. CATALOGUE COMPARISON The illustration is broadly representative. PAINT SURFACE The surface is sound with bright colours throughout. There are no signs of craquelure and the paint surface appears to be stable. The upper and lower stretcher bars have pressed against the paint surface and left imprints and there is a small area of paint loss above the cart. The picture may benefit from a light clean. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are no signs of retouching. FRAME This picture is contained in a simple modern frame.
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Ernest Proctor was born in Tynemouth in 1886 but moved when he was a small child to Leeds where his father was a Professor at the university. Ernest's mother died when he was young but his father was able to provide a comfortable home-life for Ernest and his older brother Jack, initially at Ben Rhydding near Leeds and later at The Grange in Ilkley. The Procters were an established Yorkshire Quaker family and Ernest's preliminary education was at the Quaker School of Bootham from which he graduated to the Art School in Leeds. The Procter's country retreat at Coniston encouraged his love of the outdoors and he enjoyed nothing more than climbing and walking in the Lake District. He was also a regular visitor to Cornwall and from 1907 he undertook a period of study at Stanhope Forbes' school of art in Newlyn. It was at Forbes' school that Ernest met the girl that would become his wife Doris (Dod) Shaw, who studied there with her brother Gerard. Between 1907 and his marriage to Dod in 1912, Ernest divided his time between Newlyn and his father's house in Leeds and the couple were frequently apart. The outbreak of war in 1914 took Ernest away from Dod for a more protracted time and although he spent much of his time working for the Red Cross tending the wounded and working as an ambulance mechanic, his absence was distressing for his young wife. Although Ernest missed Cornwall and his wife, he used his time in the military to practice his art by decorating Red Cross huts and painting scenery for camp entertainments. As the war came to an end Ernest wrote to Alfred Yockney, the Officer at the Ministry for Information responsible for the War Artists Committee and in December 1918 after a procedural delay he was granted a permit to paint work for the Red Cross. 

Procter returned from the Western Front in the Spring of 1919 and the present work was presumably begun soon after his return to Newlyn. The painting captures the joy of summer and exuberance of youth as the children drag the wooden boats onto the sand and play at he water's edge. The picture celebrates everything that the British soldier's had fought to protect and the painting is lit by a radiant and optimistic summer sun suggestive of a new hope for the future. There are still signs of the old Newlyn, the smoke houses and horses and carts, but it is the new generation of the children that dominate the picture and give it its kinetic energy. Brilliant light and bright colour emphasises the subject and predict the bold style of the poster art that promoted British seaside resorts in the 1920s and 1930s. The present picture was painted in the year before Procter received a commission to decorate the Kokine Palace in Rangoon which he undertook with Dod and a team of Burmese, Indian and Chinese plasterers.

On the Beach at Newlyn is comparable with Cornish Beach Scene of c.1922 (FIG. 1) and it has been suggested that the models for this picture were Bill and Richard Pollard who may also have posed for On the Beach at Newlyn. Proctor had had an academic training, in the Leeds Art School at Forbes' School and also at the Atelier Colarossi in Paris c.1910 where study of the nude figure was given paramount importance. In both On the Beach at Newlyn and Cornish Beach Scene it is clear that Proctor had based the figures on closely studied figure sketches made in his studio.