Tynemouth Pier: North-East Wind

Hunt was a contemporary of Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Millais. The artist's work developed from intense observation of nature in bright colour to a more atmospheric abstraction and this watercolour is one of his later works. The swell and surge of the tide are prominently shown, together with the atmospheric effects of a setting sun, showing the influence of Turner. The work resonates with notions of the Sublime by the immersion of the figure in the landscape at the bottom left of the image evocative of manÂ’s constant tension with the natural elements. The Tynemouth piers were in the process of construction at this time and the Whitworth is building up a collection of works depicting the modern in British society.