Le Havre de Grace

Tristram Paul Hillier 1905 - 1983

Summary

A precisely painted, surreal harbour scene. There is a jetty in the foreground littered with sinister, oversized harbour equipment including anchors, fishing nets and ship motor blades. At the end of the jetty stands a tall white with rigging and flags. To the right, just below the horizon, the outer wall of the harbour is visible, with a large number ‘7’ painted on its side and the lighthouse at its end. On the left-hand side there is the opposite wall with buildings and a crane. A steamboat with the oversized inscription 'PILOTE HAVRE' along one side and an anchor on its funnel, sails between the two. A smaller steamboat on the horizon is sailing towards the harbour. There is a flat sea and clear blue sky with few seagulls. The title translates as 'The Haven of Grace' or 'The Safe Haven'. The literal translation of Le Havre is The Harbour/The Haven. Made in Le Havre in Normandy, France where the artist lived from 1938 to 1940. Le Havre de Grace was the former name of the French port now abbreviated to Le Havre. The painting shows the Le Havre pilot boat approaching, Le Havre harbour and town were bombed and virtually destroyed by Allied bombing a few years later.

Display Label

Gallery text panel Tradition and Experiment Early Twentieth-Century Art 1900 - 1939. In Britain, the beginning of the 20th century coincided with the end of the Victorian age. Artists and designers experimented, challenging traditional ways of seeing and making; now trying to create a new art for a modern era. In painting, it was often traditional subject matter such as portraits, landscapes and interiors that would be tackled in new ways. The bustle and the brutality of urban life was an inspiration or something to escape from. Boundaries became increasingly blurred between design and decoration, painting and making and individual expression replaced academic authority. Art was made to be affordable and at a scale that would fit into ordinary homes. Some called the celebration of the modern into question after the horrors of the First World War. Traditional imagery was simplified or became childlike and slowly broke down into fragmented visions. Dream and chance tapped into subconscious anxieties and in 1939, world war intervened once again.