About this artwork

Mackie exhibited an oil under the title The Incoming Tide at the RSA in 1897 (no. 670, untraced); it is very likely that this woodcut's composition is based upon this work. A watercolour of this title was no 64 priced at £10 in the 1896 exhibition of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours and may well have served as his model for this print. The watercolour was reviewed in The Glasgow Herald (Tuesday 24 November 1896) and described as 'a picture of the advancing sea and its terrors for youngsters on the rocks, [which] is treated with dash and Japanese cleverness'. Here, Mackie's use of grey blocks to create tonal harmonies is particularly striking; it has been suggested that he was influenced by Serusier's colour theories and by the work of Auguste Lepere (1849‑1918) and Georges Lacombe (1868‑1916).

Updated before 2020

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Charles Hodge Mackie

Charles Hodge Mackie