Study of St. Michael's Mount, 1 June 2020

Frederick Cuming RA (1930 - 2022)

RA Collection: Art

In this scene, the distinctive silhouette of St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall, stands out against the distant shore. The low horizon line, and the handling of the storm clouds, is reminiscent of Constable’s celebrated Rainstorm over the sea in the RA Collection (03/1390). On the verso of the sheet is a briefly sketched seascape, in the manner of Turner’s ‘colour beginnings’.

It appears that the ’verso’ is actually painted on the ‘correct’ side of the watercolour paper. Cuming seem to have begun with this brief sketch, and then decided to start again on the reverse of the sheet, this time layering a bolder band of ochre over the green of the ocean, before working in the storm clouds and the silhouette of the mount and foreground detail.



Study of St Michael's Mount was a preliminary work taken from one of Fred Cuming's sketchbooks. He habitually carried a sketchbook wherever he went and would make preparatory sketches which he would later translate onto board or canvas.

This particular work was inspired by his last trip to Cornwall in 2019. Over the course of twenty years he made a series of trips to the same location, Trenow Cove, to paint the view from there over the water to St Michael's Mount.