"TIMBERSCOMBE, SOMERSET", a 1928 Painting by William McCance
Title
"TIMBERSCOMBE, SOMERSET", a 1928 Painting by William McCance
Subject
Description
A 1928 painting, "TIMBERSCOMBE, SOMERSET" by the Scottish artist, William McCance and what is an alternative take, perhaps painted as the artist explored his options. Observed from the western edge of Timberscombe, it can be presumed the top painting was the finished work--certainly it is the version that has often been exhibited. On it, McCance featured a fraction of Kiln Farmhouse on the left edge of the painting, with The Old Forge and it's curving wall in the centre and the bright white right wall of Church Steps Cottage to their right. The Yew Tree on the northeastern side of St. Petrock's Church, is seen on the upper right with the Churchyard Cross below it. On the top centre is the Timberscombe quarry, cut into the side of Croydon Hill.
On the bottom painting William McCance has shifted to the left, gaining more of Kiln Farmhouse and giving a welcome glimpse of Lion Inn, the village pub. On the top right corner is a smaller portion of the Timberscombe quarry, where McCance has been able to suggest more of the buildings of Hole's Square, perhaps the back side of The Bracken and slightly above it and to it's left, Hill Cottage. The latter will be demolished in 1979 and on perhaps the last photograph taken of it (seen at SP-002), the squat chimney as painted above in 1928 on the western end of the roof, was still there. While certainly McCance freely used enhanced and eclectic colouring, the purplish colour of the roof in the painting and the roof in the doomed photograph are much the same.
However the shift in perspective on the bottom painting did not allow William McCance to use the dominant white wall of Church Step Cottage as the centre of his painting, the terrifically painted yew tree and much of the curve of the Old Forge's wall and that of the bottom of Church Street-- both which draw the viewer into the final painting.
William McCance was born in 1894 at Cambuslang, a suburb of Glasgow (1). He attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1911 to 1915 (2). In 1918, he married Agnes Miller Parker, a fellow student and later a leading wood-engraver, upon his release from prison, where he had been detained during World War I as a conscientious objector. They moved to London two years later to pursue their art careers (3). A sculptor and printer as well as a painter, McCance was increasingly influenced by Cubism (4), as evident in his painting of Timberscombe. His wife became a leading (and wonderful) book illustrator. Her publications included Aesop's Fables in 1933, the poems and novels of Thomas Hardy and especially found renown for her wood engravings of animals (5). Mr. McCance also worked as an art critic (6) and was the controller of the Gregynog Press in Wales, a fine arts publisher, from 1930 to 1933 (7). He died in 1970 (8).
"TIMBERSCOMBE, SOMERSET" is an oil on board, 31.5 X 40 cm (9). It has been exhibited at the Reading Museum and Art Gallery in 1960, the Dundee City Museum and Art Gallery in 1975 and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, a collection of the work of William McCance, in 1990 (10). Other work of Mr. McCance has also been shown at the Goma Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, December 9, 2009 to February 21, 2010 and at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art at Edinburgh, December 2, 2017 to June 10, 2018 (11).
"TIMBERSCOMBE, SOMERSET" was sold by the Edinburgh auction house, Lyon & Turnball, on the 8th of December, 2016, for £9,375 (12).
The copy of the bottom painting, which sold for £1500 in 2019, was sent to St. Petrock's History Group on the 15th of August 2011 by David McCluskey. Mr. McCluskey is the great-grandson of William and Fanny (nee Chave, previously Prescott) who were proprietors, in the later 19th and early 20th century, of The Rose and Crown, an earlier public house in Timberscombe on Brook Street. After The Rose and Crown closed in 1915, they lived at The Knapp and then The Old Mill. Their daughter and Mr. McCluskey's aunt, Beatrice Pyne, married Charles Hole and they reopened The Rose and Crown as Rosemont, at first a temperance hotel and then an apartment house, well into the 1990s. Since then it has been a Bed & Breakfast and private residence. Rosemont and Mr. McCluskey's family are featured at SP-193. David McCluskey was essential in providing information and photographs and here has given a second and previously unknown look at William McCance's Timberscombe painting.
On the bottom painting William McCance has shifted to the left, gaining more of Kiln Farmhouse and giving a welcome glimpse of Lion Inn, the village pub. On the top right corner is a smaller portion of the Timberscombe quarry, where McCance has been able to suggest more of the buildings of Hole's Square, perhaps the back side of The Bracken and slightly above it and to it's left, Hill Cottage. The latter will be demolished in 1979 and on perhaps the last photograph taken of it (seen at SP-002), the squat chimney as painted above in 1928 on the western end of the roof, was still there. While certainly McCance freely used enhanced and eclectic colouring, the purplish colour of the roof in the painting and the roof in the doomed photograph are much the same.
However the shift in perspective on the bottom painting did not allow William McCance to use the dominant white wall of Church Step Cottage as the centre of his painting, the terrifically painted yew tree and much of the curve of the Old Forge's wall and that of the bottom of Church Street-- both which draw the viewer into the final painting.
William McCance was born in 1894 at Cambuslang, a suburb of Glasgow (1). He attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1911 to 1915 (2). In 1918, he married Agnes Miller Parker, a fellow student and later a leading wood-engraver, upon his release from prison, where he had been detained during World War I as a conscientious objector. They moved to London two years later to pursue their art careers (3). A sculptor and printer as well as a painter, McCance was increasingly influenced by Cubism (4), as evident in his painting of Timberscombe. His wife became a leading (and wonderful) book illustrator. Her publications included Aesop's Fables in 1933, the poems and novels of Thomas Hardy and especially found renown for her wood engravings of animals (5). Mr. McCance also worked as an art critic (6) and was the controller of the Gregynog Press in Wales, a fine arts publisher, from 1930 to 1933 (7). He died in 1970 (8).
"TIMBERSCOMBE, SOMERSET" is an oil on board, 31.5 X 40 cm (9). It has been exhibited at the Reading Museum and Art Gallery in 1960, the Dundee City Museum and Art Gallery in 1975 and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, a collection of the work of William McCance, in 1990 (10). Other work of Mr. McCance has also been shown at the Goma Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, December 9, 2009 to February 21, 2010 and at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art at Edinburgh, December 2, 2017 to June 10, 2018 (11).
"TIMBERSCOMBE, SOMERSET" was sold by the Edinburgh auction house, Lyon & Turnball, on the 8th of December, 2016, for £9,375 (12).
The copy of the bottom painting, which sold for £1500 in 2019, was sent to St. Petrock's History Group on the 15th of August 2011 by David McCluskey. Mr. McCluskey is the great-grandson of William and Fanny (nee Chave, previously Prescott) who were proprietors, in the later 19th and early 20th century, of The Rose and Crown, an earlier public house in Timberscombe on Brook Street. After The Rose and Crown closed in 1915, they lived at The Knapp and then The Old Mill. Their daughter and Mr. McCluskey's aunt, Beatrice Pyne, married Charles Hole and they reopened The Rose and Crown as Rosemont, at first a temperance hotel and then an apartment house, well into the 1990s. Since then it has been a Bed & Breakfast and private residence. Rosemont and Mr. McCluskey's family are featured at SP-193. David McCluskey was essential in providing information and photographs and here has given a second and previously unknown look at William McCance's Timberscombe painting.
Creator
William McCance /
William McCance
William McCance
Source
Publisher
Lyon & Turnball, Edinburgh, Scotland (for the top photograph)
Date
1928
1928
1928
Contributor
Language
English
Identifier
two versions of the William McCance painting of Timberscombe / Timberscombe / Village Centre
Acquisition Date
2019
2022
2022
Acquisition Method
Gift
Gift
Gift
Category
PLACES: Somerset Known/ Timberscombe
Condition
Good
Condition Notes
Entered by Tom Sperling
Condition Date
2020
2023
2023
Dimension Type
W X L
Dimension Units
cm
Dimension Value
12.5 X 16
11 X 15
11 X 15
Institution Name
St. Petrock's History Group
Notes
(1) 1901 Scotland Census (2) THE SCOTTISH GALLERY, nationalgalleries.org (3) England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 and NATIONAL GALLERIES SCOTLAND, national galleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/agnes-miller-parker (4) culturezohn.com (5) fishinkblog.com (6) the 1939 England and Wales Register (William and Agnes Miller Parker McCance are at Wycombe, Buckinghamshire in 1939) (7) NATIONAL GALLERIES SCOTLAND, nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists-william-mccance (8) mutualart.com> artist>william-mccamce (9) artnet.com> artists> william-mccance (10) artists/the sale- room.com (11) mutualart.com (12) auctions.lyonandturnball.com
Storage Location
St. Petrock's History Group Archive
Storage Date
2019
2023
2023
Storage Notes
St. Petrock's History Group ARTWORK
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
Item Reference
SP-043
Technique
Reproduction
Citation
William McCance /
William McCance, “"TIMBERSCOMBE, SOMERSET", a 1928 Painting by William McCance,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed May 3, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3267.
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