01 Marine Painting, William Henry Bartlett's SEAL-DIVER, with Footnotes, #343

William Henry  Bartlett, 1858-1932

THE SEAL-DIVER, CO. MAYO, c. 1888

Oil on canvas

115 by 162.5cm., 45¼ by 64in.

Private collection

Grey seals are the larger of the two seal species found in Irish waters. Males known as bulls are larger and heavier than the female cows with mature bulls on average measuring up to 2.5 meters in length and weighing up to 300kg. Female adults will grow to 2 meters in body length and can weigh up to 180kg. 

Grey seals have few natural predators in Irish waters, man is still the cause of most seal deaths. They were for centuries hunted for their fur and meat which resulted in a huge decline in their numbers throughout their range by the 19th century. Seal hunting has been made illegal in most parts of the world but their increasing numbers can bring them into conflict with fishermen who can legally shoot seals which are found close to their nets. Grey seal population increases may be regarded as a threat to the fishing industry as they will take salmon and other commercially important fish species from fixed nets, hunt within salmonid estuaries or target fish farms. More on seals

William Henry  Bartlett RI (1858-1932) was an accomplished artist and draughtsman, focusing primarily on landscape painting and subjects associated with the sea. In the late 1870s he travelled to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Geróme and at the Académie Julian under Bouguereau. It was through his study in Paris that he found influence from Bastien Lepage, who has been credited with leading the emergence of the Naturalist school. This inspired his use of genre and pastoral themes shown in works such as The Village Road. He returned to London in 1880 where he began exhibiting in the Royal Academy and in 1889 he was presented with a silver medal at the Paris exhibition. He developed an interest in Irish rural life, in particular the harsh landscapes that people struggled to survive in, and this has translated into a number of his paintings.

Bartlett has been exhibited numerous times with the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and the Royal Academy (RA). The Fine Art Society presented a one-man show of Bartlett’s work, he has been published in the Art Journal and he was also a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. More on William Henry  Bartlett

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