John Frederick Tennant – The Coast at Hastings, Sussex

FIGURES ON THE COAST NEAR WHITE ROCK, HASTINGS IN SUSSEX
Possibly R.B.A. Exhibit 1831 – Coastal Scene at Hastings

John Frederick Tennant

Signed & dated 1830

John F. Tennant (1796 – 1872) is regarded as one of the finest painters from the mid-Victorian. A pupil of William Anderson, his first works were historical and genre scenes. Tennant soon turned his hand to river, landscapes and coastal scenes and it is for these that he is best known.

Tennant’s signature is a clear, bright, colourful and decorative style: his sunsets are particularly vivid. The views he painted are from Wales to Eastbourne and the upper reaches of the Thames.

Tennant exhibited a remarkable 406 works in major London exhibitions: 18 at the Royal Academy (1820-1867) and 54 at the British Institution. The vast majority of his paintings, 334 of them, were exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists of which he became a member in 1842.

Colonel H. Grant says of Tennant in his work “The Old English Landscape Painters”: ‘There was no more typical Victorian nor any of better workmanship.’

Tennant lived in Richmond, Surrey between 1863 and 1869. He painted many views in the Surrey Hills around Guildford and Godalming. He also lived in Bexleyheath and in Devon and Wales.

Works Represented: The Museums & Art Galleries of Blackburn; Eastbourne; Maidstone; Manchester; Nottingham; Preston; Wednesbury and Wolverhampton; the Royal Collection; Government Art Collection London.

Bibl: Dictionary of British Landscape Painters – M.H. Grant
Victorian Painters – Christopher Wood