The Ferry. 1881. Oil on canvas. 48 x 84 inches (121.9 x 213.4 cm). Private collection. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This work reversed Macbeth's usual procedure, in that it followed rather than preceded an etching of the same title. The finished painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1881, no. 1407 and subsequently shown at the Paris Salon in 1882. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy Henry Blackburn, in Royal Academy Notes, described it as "A sunny picture, suggestive of the poetry of outdoor rustic life" (77). The critic for The Art Journal had mixed opinions on this work: "The Ferry , Robt. W. Macbeth. This work has provoked very contradictory expressions of praise and blame. We think it deserves both. The group of the itinerant fiddler, his wife and others on the right of the ferry-boat is admirable, but so much cannot be said of the girls on the left, while the whole of the background is most unfinished" (231).
The Times reviewer seemed to be the critic who most admired this painting. He noted Macbeth's connection to the Idyllist Movement through Fred Walker:
The last picture we shall mention is The Ferry by Mr. Robert Macbeth, another of the artist's pictures which deal with peasant life on the Fens. The present work is very slight in subject, being only a group of girls and rustics on board one of the rough, wooden stage ferry boats, such as one sees frequently on the Cam; but the composition is very clever, the scene full of air and sunshine, the figures of the women graceful, and the whole picture thoroughly pleasant to look upon. Mr. Macbeth is the only artist now living among us who retains the power of the late Fred Walker, of giving to his peasantry the simple dignity of movement and something of the antique nobility of form which we are accustomed to connect with the thought of Grecian sculpture. That he is able to do this without sacrifice of truth is no small praise. [12]
The Builder also praised the work despite finding the colour peculiar: "Mr. Macbeth's The Ferry is a large and interesting work; the subject mainly a collection of countryfolk on a large flat-bottomed floating wagon rather than boat, getting hauled slowly across a sluggish stream; the figures include some which he has repeated very often, but the whole work is a fine one, though peculiar in colour; the expanse of sky or rather of thin floating white cloud is very tender and atmospheric in effect" (626).
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Bibliography
Blackburn, Henry: Royal Academy Notes. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly, 1881.
"Further Notes at the Royal Academy." The Builder XL (May 21, 1881): 626.
"The Ferry. Etched by Robert W. Macbeth." The Portfolio XII (1881): 21.
"The Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series XX (1881): 229-31.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Times (June 27, 1881): 12.
Created 1 June 2023