Passage through the Ice

Albert Moulton Foweraker, RBA (1873 – 1942)

Watercolour. Signed.

8¾” x 11” (22.2 cm x 27.9 cm)

This highly accomplished watercolourist specialised in twilight and moonlit scenes in hues of blue. Alongside rural and coastal scenes in Devon, Cornwall and Dorset, he produced many paintings from travels to Spain, France and North Africa. These often featured a characteristic touch of light – from a lantern, cottage window or even the carriage of a train. In this rare composition, it is fascinating how the artist has retained this hallmark observation in the lights from the ship reflected in the icy ocean. It is not entirely surprising that Foweraker should have chosen to paint this scene. He held a keen interest in the enquiries into the Titanic iceberg disaster of 1912 and, in his will, left various documents relating to these matters to The British Museum.

Foweraker was educated at Exeter Cathedral School and Cavendish College, Cambridge before graduating in Applied Science at Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1893. He initially qualified as a milling engineer before choosing to become a professional artist in his mid-twenties. He exhibited regularly at the principal galleries, including The Royal Academy and The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and was elected to The Royal Society of British Artists in 1902, the year in which he moved to Lelant, near St. Ives in Cornwall. In the 1920s he settled in Dorset, where he lived and continued to paint until his death in 1942.