Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (1864-1947)

One of three similar Étaples subjects by Bunny; the other two After the Boats have Left, Étaples, Sotheby's Melbourne, 28-29 April 1998, lot 59 as 'Breton Fishing Boats'; and The Fishing Fleet, Sotheby's Melbourne, 21 April 1986, lot 33. Bunny exhibited two Étaples subjects at his first exhibition in Australia in Melbourne in 1911, After the Boats Have Left (Étaples, Paris, S.I.) and Boats Preparing to Leave (Étaples, Paris S.I.), the latter possibly the present picture. All three pictures are tonally dark and show the influence of the American painter August Koopman (1869-1914) whom Bunny met in 1894.

We are grateful to David Thomas for the above information.