Alexander Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947)
A Sketch, Mousehole Harbour, Cornwall
POA
The Fine Art Society
Muncaster was a sailor, so when a girl refused his marriage proposal, he took a bus to Barrow-in-Furness and signed on as ship's painter with the Finnish sailing barque Favell in January 1930, bound for Helsinki. He wrote: 'For me, there are few things more beautiful than to lie on one's back on the fo'c'sle head in warm weather and a light wind, and look up into the foremast when all the sails are set. Their curves are so subtle. With a slight breeze, the foot of each sail curves upwards and outwards revealing the sails and rigging of the other masts; and the pattern of the blue sky between seems all the bluer because of the contrast of the white canvas. There are also the shadows cast from staysails and jibs. Nowhere is there a straight line. All ships have this peculiarity. Even the ridges of rungs are streamlined and curved. The decks are curved to take away the water. The masts and funnels are round and the only straight lines in a windjammer are the backstays. Most of the running rigging, by its own weight, has a sag to it, and the stays cannot remain taut when the staysails and jibs are set and straining. And how splendid the curves of the bow where they meet the water. And how graceful the lines of the bow itself, surmounted usually by some finely carved figurehead. It is this constant presence of curves that makes ships so difficult to draw; but what a fascinating challenge.' (Martin Muncaster, The Wind in the Oak, 1978, p. 31)