Ralph Hedley - Contraband

signed and dated l.l.: R. Hedley 1889

oil on canvas

49 by 60 in.
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 72,000 GBP


EXHIBITED

Newcastle upon Tyne, Bewick Club, 6th Annual Exhibition, 1889, no.42;
London, Royal Academy, 1889 (1249);
Newcastle upon Tyne, Central Exchange Art Gallery, Grainger Street, 1889, no.86

Ralph Hedley was born at Richmond in Yorkshire but spent his adult life in Newcastle upon Tyne. He trained at the art school there under William Bell Scott, and joined, and eventually became president of, the Newcastle artists’ society known as the Bewick Club. Hedley’s subject matter was found in the city of Newcastle, on the shores of the Tyne between Newcastle and the sea, and in the market towns and countryside of Durham and Northumberland. He recorded with fond observation the lives of Northumbrian working people in the late nineteenth century. In Hedley’s painting Contraband a customs officer is seen inspecting the contents of a mariner’s sea-trunk.

CSN
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=4N37C

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Hedley

http://www.cinoa.org/art-and-antiques/detail/40369