07/03/2026 General News, Latest News, Pictures & Prints
Bellmans are delighted to be offering a seminal sketchbook, containing no less than forty-five works by Henry Scott Tuke (Estimate £8,000-12,000), which forms a pictorial account of his tour of Italy and the Mediterranean in 1892. Arriving in Venice for the first time, Tuke went on to explore Florence, Siena, Naples and Rome before taking a ferry to Corfu, continuing his journey via Naples, Palermo and finally capturing views in Spain and Morrocco. This prolonged exposure to the unique character and quality of Mediterranean light had a marked effect on Tuke, and in particular his treatment of the male nude having returned to Falmouth; major works including August Blue (1893, Tate Britain), are set in a climate that reflects the Italian Riviera rather than the south coast of England. This treatment remained throughout his career and is clearly illustrated in works such as Cupid and the Sea Nymphs (1898-99, Private Collection), Gleaming Waters (1911, Private Collection) and Lovers of the Sun (1923, Private Collection).
Tuke departed for what he called ‘the land of the sun’ in February 1892, travelling with Sir Walter Dalrymple whose family had a villa in Monte Carlo. He stopped off in Paris to admire the works of his former tutor Jules Bastien-Lepage. Based on correspondence with his sister and biographer Maria, Tuke’s initial impression of Venice was decidedly underwhelming but within a week he was writing ‘…I have seen the most exquisite things since my first letter and begin to understand the spell that Venice can exercise.’ Tuke was fortunate to have as his Venetian guide, author and historian Horatio Forbes Brown who had lived in Venice since 1879. Brown lived in a building on the Zattere opposite the Guidecca and had a lodger, Antonio Salin, who was a gondolier and through whom Brown came to know Venice intimately.
On March 9th Tuke travelled to Burano and described the visit in a letter to Maria as ‘…the most highly coloured place I have ever seen…the houses, the people and their clothes were one mass of colour.’ The first fifteen sketches reflect the burgeoning love-affair between Tuke and Venice, a place he would return to on numerous occasions throughout his life, culminating in a masterly depiction of the Ducal palace, radiating midday heat, and an ethereal study of St. Marks at sunset.
On reaching Corfu Tuke met up with artists Arthur Tanner and Tom Mostyn who had rented a house in Benitza. In another letter to Maria, he wrote, ‘Once more living the old savage life after much sight-seeing and respectable clothes.’ The sketchbook picks up at this point of the journey with a series of studies of the idyllic Corfu coastline, as well as a vibrant study of an old ship’s boat the Kakiamero in which Tuke, Tanner and Mostyn sailed the fifteen miles from Corfu to Albania.
Amongst these views is one of the smallest but most accomplished entries in the sketchbook; a small study of two figures in a boat, executed in deep blue and magenta, with exquisite detail, the line between object and reflection is blurred, displaying Tuke’s remarkable deftness of touch and handling of light on water. Tuke himself was more self-critical however writing to his sister on 14th June that the Mediterranean light was almost too vibrant,’…so much glitter, and effects are so complicated, watercolour sketching seems very inadequate.’
As the summer wore on Tuke began his journey home on the steamer Silvio Spaventa, sailing past and visiting Palermo before arriving in Spain in mid-July. He recorded numerous sketches from the deck including two studies of a spectacular sunset on 28th July over Cap de Gata, with the final cited views being Apis Hill Morrocco the following day and Gibraltar soon after. On the 4th August Tuke arrived in England and journeyed home by train. 
Catherine Wallace’s observations, drawn from the sketchbook, pertain particularly to the weeks in Venice but actually encapsulate this ‘Grand Tour’ as whole, ‘It becomes apparent from his sketchbook that Tuke was falling in love with the place, relishing being in boats of all shapes and sizes… and capturing the shifting light on the water and buildings.’ A description of the daily routine, in a letter to his sister, captures what a charming and formative experience it was, ‘From 9 to 5 it is generally so hot that nothing requiring more thought than swimming, boating, sleeping or eating can be done. But against that can be put the fact that we get up about 5.30 and get nearly a day’s work done while you’re still in bed…’
This and other works by Tuke will be included in the sale of Old Master, British & European Art on 25th March 2026.