Jame Webb (1825-1895) - Le Mont Saint-Michel

James Webb (1825-1895) from Chelsea, London, was born into a family of artists. His father Archibald Webb and his brother Byron Webb were also renowned painters. He excelled in dramatic paintings of coastal and harbour scenes and was particularly fond of painting famous sites on rocky coastlines.
From 1850 to 1888, he exhibited in London at the Royal Academy and the British Institute of the New Watercolour Society and the Grosvenor Galleries. Today his work is held mainly in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery, as well as almost every provincial gallery in England; the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the City Art Gallery, Glasgow; the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Our work, dated 1856, is a preparatory study for a painting exhibited at the Tate Gallery, entitled "Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy". In this composition, the majestic Mont Saint-Michel stands proudly in the background, emerging above a stormy sea. As a family of fishermen scramble to reach the shore as quickly as possible, a mother, looking after her offspring, hurries before the tide overwhelms them. The dark, turbulent clouds accentuate the striking contrast between the unchanging serenity of this iconic place and the power of the sometimes hostile nature.