Town was an irresistible inspiration for artists

'EVERY picture tells a story' - and Seaford has had its share of attractive and interesting events and people to inspire artists for generations. The perfect curve of the bay has been irresistible to such painters as William Collins, who included three fruit-munching children in the foreground of his view. (His son was Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White).

Seaford Head, towering some 300 feet above the beach, appeals to many including the British Railways artist whose poster presented such an idyllic scene. He even managed a distant glimpse of the Seven Sisters, that mighty range of cliffs beloved of many visitors.

The view east above the mouth of the Cuckmere with Coastguard Cottages in the fore- ground remains a favourite with painters and photographers alike.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I wonder just how many picture postcards and greetings cards have featured them over the years? For the interpreters of rural scenes rather than those of the sea, upriver to Alfriston or inland to Blatchington or Bishopstone have much to offer. Bygone oil sketches by A R Quinton were featured here a while ago. Of modern local exponents of past and present marine subjects, Mr S Francis Smitheman's are a delight of meticulously researched power and detail, and the late Mr Robert Back painted seascapes whose breakers seemed to roll before your eyes.

Sir Frank Short (his Seaford home mentioned last week) was a highly respected printmaker 'arguably unrivalled' in the fields of aquatint and mezzotint, publishing several books and pamphlets. We know that he retired from his professorship at the Royal College of Art in 1924; before long, his name appeared in local directories at Ingleside, Claremont Road. He continued working in his favoured medium, interpreting local scenes such as the old Buckle Inn during a storm, and a night view from his window towards the Newhaven light. He was still in Seaford at the outbreak of the Second World War, but his death in 1945 is recorded as taking place in Ditchling.

Another 'celebrity' to have lived in Seaford for a time was the Victorian novelist and poet George Meredith, awarded the Order of Merit but not so popular or fashionable these days, I fear, though his story The House on the Beach is worth reading as its setting is the fictitious Sussex coastal town of 'Crikswich' - based on Seaford! A Seaford, moreover, regarded by Mr Meredith as a dull, dirty backwater (this was in the 1850s) when he boarded with Mr and Mrs Ockenden of Marine Terrace, having probably been introduced to the town by his friend young Mr FitzGerald of Corsica Hall. Another friend was Pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Wallis, in 1855/6 working on his painting of the death of 18-year-old failed poet Thomas Chatterton. Often accompanied by his wife Mary, Meredith visited Wallis's London studio to pose for the face of Chatterton. Soon afterwards, Mary eloped with Wallis and it was probably then that Meredith took refuge in Seaford. Some of his poetry at that time comes over today as that of a bitter misogynist!

Thanks to Liam of Seaford Library and Anne of WEA local history group for their help with research for this piece.

PAT BERRY

Related topics: