Signed and dated l.l.: Herbert Dalziel/1902

Oil on canvas, 35.5 by 45.5 cm (14 by 17 ¾ ins)

Provenance: Sotheby’s Belgravia, The Dalziel family : engravers and illustrators, work from the Studio of Herbert Dalziel, 16th May, 1978, lot 82

In the catalogue for his landmark 1995 Barbican show Impressionism in Britain, Kenneth McKonkey wrote of Dalziel’s later work: “In an extraordinary departure, around 1910, Herbert Dalziel abandoned his conservative style and produced a number of jewel-like landscapes which adopt a sophisticated divisionism…the sense of atmosphere and weird luminosity draws comparisons with contemporary photography and the mystic landscapes of Khnopff.” Painted in 1902, Nocturne: Winter Sea is one of a number of works that suggests that Dalziel had adopted this more radical style  well-before 1910 at a time where he was starting to exhibit at the New English Art Club (having recently been elected a member). It is likely that it was here that he came to know the American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler who remained a strong influence. Dalziel was the son of Thomas Dalziel, part of the important Victorian family wood-engraving business known as the Brothers Dalziel.