John Mulcaster Carrick

In John Mulcaster Carrick’s Enys Dodnan, Cornwall there is an overall stillness and serenity and a sense of the painting being a homage to nature itself. The rock, the Enys Dodnan arch near Land's End, is the main subject and focal point, as the still glassy water laps at its sides and seabirds rest atop its cliffs. The Longships Lighthouse, situated on rocks off the south-west coast can be seen in the distance behind.

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Carrick was affiliated with the Pre-Raphaelites, and his works were considered in the same style (hence the wonderful Pre-Raphaelite frame the present work is housed in). He joined the Hogarth Club which was founded by former Brotherhood members after its dissolution.Working in Cornwall in the 1870’s, by 1883 he was working with the Newlyn artists. He exhibited works at the Royal Academy and  his panting Magdalen Bridge and College Oxford is in the government art collection.

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Interestingly, the painting was previously owned by Charlotte and Robert Frank. Robert was the u ncle of the diariast Anne Frank. Fleeing Nazi Germany then settled in London and setup a refugees from Nazi set up as dealers in St. James’s, in the early 1940s, specialising in Victorian art.  

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