''Smugglers Alarmed by an Unexpected Change from Hazy Weathers, while Landing their Cargo'' is an

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

by the British

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

Augustus Wall Callcott Sir Augustus Wall Callcott (20 February 177925 November 1844) was an English landscape painter. Life and work Callcott was born at Kensington Gravel Pits, a village on the western edge of London, in the area now known as Notting Hill Gate ...

, from 1822.

History and description

Combining elements of

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

and

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre) is the painting of genre art, which depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity ca ...

it depicts a band of

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

s attempting to land their contraband cargo on the southern English coast, who are disturbed by a sudden change in the weather. It is set on an imaginary stretch of coast, although possibly inspired by cliffs near

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. The work was commissioned by the

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

Member of Parliament Sir Thomas Heathcote. It was shown at the

Royal Academy Exhibition of 1822 The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1822 was the annual Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts. It was held at Somerset House between 6 May and 13 July 1822 and featured over a thousand exhibits. By far the most popular attraction on displa ...

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

. ''

The Scots Magazine ''The Scots Magazine'' is a magazine containing articles on subjects of Scottish interest. It claims to be the oldest magazine in the world still in publication, although there have been several gaps in its publication history. It has reported on ...

'' described it as the "finest work in the exhibition", with the exception of David Wilkie's ''

Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Dispatch ''The Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch'', originally entitled ''Chelsea Pensioners Receiving the London Gazette Extraordinary of Thursday, June 22, 1815, Announcing the Battle of Waterloo'', is an oil painting by David Wilkie, c ...

'' and amongst the only works on display, along with

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English people, English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was a ...

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...

, to "evince real genius". Today the painting is in the collection of the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...

, having been acquired in 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smugglers Alarmed by an Unexpected Change from Hazy Weathers, while Landing their Cargo Paintings by Augustus Wall Callcott 1822 paintings Paintings in Royal Museums Greenwich Genre paintings Landscape paintings Oil on canvas paintings