Carel Weight (1908-1997)
The Old Sailor's Chapel, Gravesend
Oil on canvas
Signed
15 1/2 x 23 1/2 ins (39 x 60 cms)
SOLD
Provenance
Collection of the artist
Private collection, UK
Exhibited
Possibly 'Strange Happenings in the Common Place;a retrospective exhibition of the work of Professor Carel Weight R.A., C.B.E.', Newport Museum & Art Gallery, Wales, 1993
After the war Carel Weight returned to London and took up several teaching posts, but with a determined concentration on his own paintings: 'I had a burning desire really to just paint quiety on my own, and one of the things I did, I painted a series of pictures of the Thames. I used to go up and down the Thames. It was very romantic for me...I used to take my paints and go to various places and take a room in a hotel overlooking the water and paint a series of little pictures, and that I think really got me working'.
One area that Carel often visited was Gravesend, as he fondly recalled: 'I love it there, and I used to wander up through this mostly Georgian and Victorian town as it was there, you could walk to the back of the town and go up a little hill and come onto a recreation ground, where you got a marvellous view right across the Thames as it wound towards London you see. That was very inspiring. I didn't want to paint panoramic views or anything like that, but it created a wonderful atmosphere for me, I was fascintated'