Henry Scott Tuke, Portrait of Gerald Caldwell Siordet .

Siordet hailed from a prominent Huguenot family whom originated in the Vers region of France, near Geneva, before settling in London. Gerald was educated at Clifton College, where he won numerous Royal Drawing Society medals, before being awarded a scholarship to read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford. Whilst at Oxford, he met fellow aspiring artist Brian Hatton (1887-1916) who studied at Trinity and painted Siordet’s portrait on a number of occasions. Having come down from Oxford, Siordet and Hatton shared a studio, known as The Bronze Door, on Cathcart Road in South Kensington. As well as Tuke, their artistic circle included Glyn Philpot, Gerald Spencer Pryce, the illustrator Henry Justice Ford and John Singer Sargent who drew a superb portrait of Siordet.

Siordet worked with the New English Art Club and it is likely that it was there that he met Tuke. He also worked for a number of other artistic Institutions including the Medici Society, the Victoria & Albert museum, where he catalogued the collection of ivory carvings; he also wrote a number of artistic critiques for The Studio magazine. Siordet was working for the Fine Art Society when was war was declared in August 1914. He joined as a private soldier but in July 1915 was promoted to 2^nd Lieutenant, the 13^th Rifle Brigade.

On 1^st July the following year, stationed near the village of Pozieres, during the Battle of the Somme, Siordet was awarded the Military Cross ‘For conspicuous gallantry during an attack.’ In January 1917, having recovered from a wound suffered during the Somme, Siordet was sent to Mesopotamia with the 6^th King’s Own Lancaster Regiment and, on 9^th February, was killed whilst leading a successful attack on a Turkish position near Kut-al-Amara on the left bank of the Tigris River. His body was never recovered but his name is recorded on the Basra memorial, Iraq, The WWI memorial at Balliol, as well as the V&A memorial designed by Eric Gill.

Siordet left behind a sketchbook of works from the Western Front described in the Cliftonian in March 1919 as ‘…extraordinarily vivid. They are done with a few, sure, light lines, evidences of technical knowledge and highly trained skill.’ The same article described his poetry as, ‘The theme…of passionate friendship, united with passionate love of England and passionate faith in England’s cause, and her right to claim his utmost devotion.’ Such praise is justified and illustrated in just a few lines from his poem ‘To the Dead’,

‘So may I turn me in and by some sweet
Remembered pathway find you once again.
Then we can walk together, I with you.
Or you, or you, along some quiet road.
And talk the foolish, old, forgivable talk.
And laugh together; you will turn your head,
Look as you used to look, speak as you spoke,
My friend to me, and I your friend to you.’

Following Siordet’s death, Glyn Philpot arranged for a volume of his poetry and drawings to be published privately for his sister Vera. Another obituary described him as a ‘…man with very mature judgement, with great knowledge, very definite opinions on all questions of taste, whether literary or artistic, and an acute critical sense, combined with great warmth of heart and no little wit, he was beloved by older and younger alike.’

_{HENRY SCOTT TUKE (BRITISH, 1858-1929) Wine Carriers, St Tropez, (detail), signed and dated 'H.S. TUKE 1926' watercolour 36 x 25.5cm £3000-5000}

Also included in the sale, from the same private collection, is a vibrant and highly detailed view, Wine Carriers, St. Tropez, painted on Tuke’s 1926 trip to the South of France. In her memoir Tuke’s sister Maria recalled from his letters, ‘He worked with enthusiasm all the time, sometimes on the quay and others on the balcony. These were the best pictures of the whole trip. They show the wine boats ranged along the quay with sunny houses beyond.’

_{HENRY SCOTT TUKE (BRITISH, 1858-1929) The Silk Gown - Portrait of Maria Tuke Sainsbury (detail), signed with initials, dated and inscribed 'H.S.T 1885/ M.T.' watercolour 37 x 25cm £4000-6000}

Maria herself is the subject of a beautiful and sensitive watercolour, also to be included in the sale; The Silk Gown - Portrait of Maria Tuke Sainsbury depicts Maria wearing a gown which belonged to her grandmother, Mary Mara Scott who, having married into the Tuke family, had given away the majority of her finest clothes in keeping with their Quaker beliefs. This particular garment is now part of the collection at the V&A.

_{HENRY SCOTT TUKE (BRITISH, 1858-1929) Burton saddlery (detail), signed and dated 'H.S. TUKE 1910' watercolour 25 x 35cm £800-1200}

A further work, The Burton Saddlery, also relates to Tuke’s family; George Stacey Gibson, a relative of Tuke by marriage, was born in the right half of this building in 1818. He went on to form Gibson, Tuke & Gibson which amalgamated with Barclays bank in 1896. From 1845, Gibson owned the Grade II listed Hill House in Saffron Walden, where Tuke and his mother Esther would regularly enjoy Christmas. Tuke’s rendering of this charming, honey-stoned building is a faithful memento to his ancestor’s former home.

_{HENRY SCOTT TUKE (BRITISH, 1858-1929) Barques at anchor in Falmouth (detail), signed and dated 'H.S. TUKE 1921' watercolour 24.5 x 34cm £1000-2000}

As well as the above, there is a typically accomplished and atmospheric depiction of Barques at Anchor in Falmouth. According to the Tuke registers, this was one of a number of pictures sold to Madame Hawke, a knitwear entrepreneur, based in Newquay. Widowed with six children to raise, Hawke bought a knitting machine and set up a shop which went on to supply Debenhams in London. This demand led to further expansion which, at its peak, provided local employment for 450 staff.

A fellow-Falmouth artist and contemporary of Tuke’s is also represented in the sale; Ironclads by Charles Napier Hemy was painted in 1904 and exhibited at the RA in 1906. Described in the Royal Academy Pictures of the Year as having ‘…the purposefulness without the pomp of war in the quiet leviathan…’ Ironclads depicts an Edgar-class battleship in the foreground with a Canopus-class battleship astern.

_{CHARLES NAPIER HEMY (BRITISH, 1841-1917) Ironclads (detail), signed with initials and dated 'C.N.H. 1904' watercolour and gouache 45 x 67cm £1200-1800}

Auction Details

• Sale: Old Master, British & European Art, Wednesday 15 October
• Auctioneer: Bellmans, Sussex
• Lots: 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874,
• Estimate: £1,200 - £1,800, £1500 - £2,500, £4,000 - £6,000, £800 - £1,200, £3000 - £5,000, £1000 - £2,000, respectively

View the full catalogue and register to bid online here.