Stranded – morning after the wreck

Copley Fielding was known primarily for his scenes of shipping off British coasts. He assimilated the dominant Romantic style of watercolour painting which consisted of building up forms with flat, transparent washes, and he was particularly good at capturing such evanescent effects as rain, spray and clouds. In this work, broad sponging with dark blue-grey (Payne’s grey) evokes the drama of the sky, while scratching through the surface of the paint to reveal the white of the paper beneath suggests the sea foam and waves.