All Hands to the Pumps

This picture shows a ship that has lost one of its sails, and is being swamped by a storm. The crew desperately pump water out of the hull. When he painted this picture Henry Scott Tuke was living aboard an old French brig anchored in Falmouth Harbour.Tuke had lived in Falmouth as a boy, and visited since, but he left London in 1885 to settle there permanently. He was encouraged to move to Cornwall by the Newlyn school of open-air painters. He focused mainly on painting the male nude in the open air, but also produced marine subjects like this.