+- Story-Portal (https://time-tales.af/storys)
+-- Forum: EBOOK (https://time-tales.af/storys/forumdisplay.php?fid=27)
+--- Forum: EBOOK (https://time-tales.af/storys/forumdisplay.php?fid=28)
+--- Thread: Under Canvas (1989) (/showthread.php?tid=2330)
Under Canvas (1989) - Simon - 12-09-2025
Tom White was a Falmouth boy who was first seen by Tuke swimming with his friends in Sunny Cove. He was a lithe, slim boy and Tuke saw him as a potential model. The introduction was managed formally by another of the swimmers, Webber, a shop assistant already known to Tuke. Webber took Tom out to Swanpool, and once he had left school (at the age of fourteen) and become a Post Office messenger boy, he posed for Tuke over four summers, 1915-1918, and was his principal model while Charlie Mitchell was on active service. He appears in three of the Academy pictures of 1918: Under the Western Sun, Morning Bright and Blue Jacket and one of Tuke’s most famous pictures, shown in 1919: Summer Dreams. He was paid 2s 6d per session, but sometimes as much as £l for four sessions. Being a sensible lad, he banked it all and saved up about £80 with which he bought furniture when he married.
His account of being one of Tuke's models is disarmingly truthful.
"Tuke never painted me in the studio, but always out of doors, usually on the beach, and always nude. My attitude to the whole thing was rather naive; I took it very light-heartedly. We were more like friends than master and man. I went or didn't as the whim took me. He would say sometimes 'the tide is wrong' or 'the light isn't right’ in a cross way, then we would natter in the studio and he might put on a Caruso or Tetrazzini record. He was nuts on her — Le Echo I think was his favourite record. He might be touching up paintings and discussing techniques: the importance of clouds, sky, light being correct. My skin colour was important as Tuke did not want sunburn, and I could not sunbathe in off times.
I don't remember Tuke painting from photographs. I thought that being a model was not quite the thing, and asked Tuke not to paint the likeness of my face in a painting. Tuke accepted my wishes, and was a perfect gentleman. Often ideas for pictures came by chance. Summer Dreams happened one day when I was resting from posing on Newporth beach. I had probably been on night duty and was tired. Tuke said to me 'Do you think you could get in that position again? You were sound asleep!’ and Summer Dreams was born. The picture was in his studio between exhibitions, and travelled all over the world. He was loath to part with it, and never did.
Usually we walked to Newporth beach for posing, but sometimes we went in the praam dinghy. HST himself would attend to the boat, which was pulled up just above high tide mark,
below the house, and do all the rowing and carrying if we went by boat, whereas I used to go along more or less as a guest . . . Tuke used to carry the easel and canvas, being afraid of me mishandling them. Usually we went about 10 am, and for a long time I walked both ways from home and back, but later Tuke gave me an old bicycle to use, which enabled me to get quickly to and from home (he himself always cycled in and out of Falmouth town). He would take an easel, oil paints in a box and canvas on a stretcher, involving some difficulty on the steep grass slope near the beach. I never saw anyone else modelling, I was always solo. Often when we had got to Newporth the sun or the tide was wrong, and we used to laze around, or bathe. Tuke got ideas for poses from those times. We were fond of diving in the deep gully at the southern end of the beach . . .
Tuke's studio was built of wood boards, with a big light in the roof. It was not dusty, and was fairly dry. It was stacked with paintings in disarray against each other, and he would grumble if anyone tried to tidy up. The cricketing had finished before 1914, but a concrete batting pitch was still there behind the studio, and he used to tell me of the famous cricketers who had been along there, 'W'.G.' and Ranji. He had a bat autographed by them. He had a telescope for watching the shipping, and had a knowledge of the flags used for signalling. . . Once I had dinner by candlelight with him, just the two of us in the room of his cottage on the left of the front door.
He would often tell me where he would be going that evening to dine, to the Bulls or Foxes etc., and would ask me to go in with losses or gains when he played bridge. Of course I was not used to gambling and always refrained. Next day he would say 'Pity you weren't in, as I won so-and-so' but then he would give me 5s as he had a good night! Sometimes in the evenings he would go to one of the clubs, Athenaeum or Falmouth Gentlemen's Club, and play poker. Mostly he would win. He would ask me beforehand, would I like to wager 1s (one shilling) if he lost against 1s for every £1 he won. I never did, but he would often hand over two or three bob [shillings] next time we met!"
. . . . .