An important but little-known example of 19th-century British impressionism, depicting two girls gazing across a river as they wait for a ferryman, has been acquired for the nation.
Tate Britain has put on public display William Stott of Oldham’s Le Passeur (The Ferryman) (1881) which it has bought for £1.5m.
Alison Smith, Tate’s lead curator of British art, predicted it would become a gallery favourite. “It is an astonishing work, yet very subtle at the same time,” she said. “It is a lovely picture to look at and technically it is a tour de force but it is very calming as well, very meditative. We might get people coming here just for five minutes.”
Smith said it was the crowning achievement of Stott, who signed himself “of Oldham” because he was proud of his roots but also so he was not mixed up with another well-known painter of the time, Edward Stott, from Rochdale. Confusingly Edward had been christened William.
The 1.8-metre-wide work was painted by Stott when he was staying at an artist’s colony in the French village of Grez-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau.
On one level it is a beautiful scene, of the river Loire at dusk, the light reflecting on the water and the girls waiting for the ferryman to take them home to the village. But it is also about the passage of life, the older girl contemplating her entire future, Smith said.
“She is moving from being a child to an adult, perhaps to a life that extends beyond the village,” she said. “It is about consciousness, awareness, of teenagers moving into adulthood.”
The painting was shown at the Paris Salon where it was well received, winning a medal, but viewers in London were less enthusiastic. “Critics thought it too loose in terms of its brushwork, it didn’t have that finish they expected of British landscape painting,” said Smith.
The Aberdeen merchant and early photographer John Forbes White bought the painting, partly because it resembled the view he had from his back garden. It was seen at his house by young Scottish impressionists who were part of the Glasgow Boys circle. “It emboldened them to produce works that were equally or even more daring,” said Smith.
Stott’s work influenced artists such as George Clausen and James Guthrie and joins, in the Tate collection, other, later examples of British impressionism – most notably John Singer Sargent’s Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose.
After White, the painting was owned by another Scottish collector and then Lady Elizabeth Longman, a bridesmaid to the Queen.
It has been acquired thanks to gifts from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Art Fund and the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation.
It has gone on display at Tate Britain alongside works by Stott’s contemporaries, and will later tour the UK – to Oriel y Parc gallery in St Davids, Southampton City Art Gallery, Gallery Oldham and Aberdeen Art Gallery.
Smith said because the painting had been privately owned for generations, “[it] has often been written out of the narrative of British impressionism but it is a really key work. It is a beautiful painting in its own right and we imagine it will be a very popular one.”
• The spotlight display of Le Passeur is at Tate Britain until 4 February 2018
