£2,500

Oil on panel, 11Q X 14 ins. (29.2 X 35.5 cms.)
Provenance: Eleanor Malam, the artist's wife

Throughout his life Rollinson, who lived in Cottingham, East Yorkshire, painted the Humber estuary. Here a steamer is shown in a creek or at the mouth of a river, suggesting a tidal harbour such as Grimsby or Hull. The buildings behind the ship appear to be warehouses or a customs house. There is a barge in the picture suggesting that goods were taken to this place for transhipment downriver.

The ship, pre-World War I in construction, appears to be a short passage cargo steamer, possibly with room for a few passengers, typically used for crossing the North Sea and Channel. The black tops of (yellow?) funnels (hard to judge in the twilight) suggest ownership by a railway company, probably the Great Central, who poured a lot of money into its shipping line and built its own docks at Immingham (near Grimsby). From here they traded across the North Sea to the Baltic, Germany, Holland and Belgium: coal out and pit-props back was one of their mainstays.

We are grateful to Ian Jack for his assistance.
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Oil on panel, 9½ x 12¾ ins. (24.2 x 32.4 cms.)
Provenance: the artist's wife, Betty Malam, and thence by descent

This painting probably depicts the quayside at Scarborough. Rollinson lived and worked in East Yorkshire throughout his life and found in its landscape and people an endless source of inspiration.
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Oil on canvas, 32 x 20 ins. (81.3 x 50.8 cms.)
Provenance: the artist's wife, Betty Malam, and thence by descent

In 1922, Rollinson married one of his students, Betty Malam, an accomplished artist and miniaturist in her own right and the model for this painting. This portrait, which remained with the artist throughout his life, and dates to the time of the marriage, captures the intimacy which clearly existed between artist and model.
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Oil on panel, 16 X 13Q ins. (41.6 X 34.3 cms.)
Provenance: Eleanor Malam, the artist's wife

Rollinson's lavish technique owed much to the continental nineteenth-century tradition, which remained a staple part of reactionary painting in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century.

Thumbnail panels:

Sunderland Rollison 1872-1950

Sunderland Rollinson was born in Knaresborough in 1872, although his family moved to Scarborough shortly afterwards. He studied at Scarborough School of Art and at the Royal College of Art in London. He lived and taught in Edinburgh from 1904 to 1908, and in 1910 moved to Cottingham, East Yorkshire, where he took a teaching job at Hull College of Art. He taught at Hull for 28 years until his retirement in 1937. He lived for many years at 3 Market Green, Cottingham, which provided the scene for a number of his paintings. He also had a studio at 12 Princess Street, Scarborough.

In 1922 he married one of his students, Eleanor Malam, an accomplished artist and miniaturist in her own right. Throughout his life he continued to paint the Humber estuary, the Yorkshire Wolds, Teesdale and Midlothian. His lavish plein-air technique owed much to the continental nineteenth-century tradition, which remained a staple part of reactionary painting in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also a skilled print-maker. He exhibited at the RA, the Paris Salon, the RSA and RBA. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held in the Borlase Gallery, Blewbury, in 1976. He was awarded the National Medal for Success in Art by the Science and Art Department in 1896 and 1897.