Completed British 20th C, except portraits, South East England: Artists and Subjects 9 Does Richard Wyndham's 'The Pink Boat' show the River Medway near Tonbridge?

Well it could be I suppose, but only because he has painted there before.

After Richard Wyndham left London he settled at Tickerage Mill, near Blackboys, in East Sussex, where he lived for a good number of years, spending much time there in the 1930s. The Mill has an extensive lake which is fed by streams from the River Uck, a tributary of the River Ouse. Some thirteen years after Wyndham's death in 1948 the property became quite famous as the country retreat of the actress Vivien Leigh. Brighton & Hove Museums and Art Galleries has a painting of Tickerage Mill in their collection. Although I cannot be certain I think The Pink Boat is more likely to be a view at Tickerage which was used for boating, rather than a scene on the River Medway. Other Wyndham paintings on the Art UK site are also likely to be have been painted near to Blackboys, especially the two works each titled 'Summer Landscape' held respectively by The Government Art Collection and The Ulster Museum. Still Waters may also be a Tickerage work.

This appears to be the mill pond at Tickerage looking towards the south-west where the dam runs alongside Tickerage Lane. Although the lane cannot be seen, the artist records the fencing and the telegraph poles (still visible via Google Earth) which show where it runs. In this work, Wyndham added more foliage to obscure the old mill buildings which lie to the west of the pond. In contrast, he includes the roof of the old corn mill and an adjacent haystack, in the corresponding painting at Manchester City Art Gallery.

The artist seems to be have been on the waterside terrace next to the main house. On the left he shows a bowed-top paling fence (running into a red wall) edging the lane where it passes over the sluice that discharges into a pool beyond and below. This all still exists, though the fencing now is finer and straight. Attachment (1) is almost exactly the same view today. (2) is a modern shot taken on the lane over the sluice looking the same way (SW), and showing the fence and wall (now with a pillar at the end), and the pool beyond. Wyndham seems to have simplified things so that only one fence & the wall (which is really on the other side) is visible. He may have cheated the background, too, to emphasize the shape of the fencing, making it a plain grassy green (instead of the trees). Further along he shows a short length of plainer white fencing which has now been replaced or obscured by a hedge - however, it was still visible in the 1960s, when Vivien Leigh lived there - see (3). (4) is a modern reverse view from the sluice 'bridge' back towards the house and terrace. The wooded backgound hill on the left of our picture is Tickerage Wood, which today still covers the ground as it rises up towards the ridge along which the modern B2102 runs - see (5). The stream from the mill, incidentally, is a tributary of the River Uck (rather than being fed from it), joining it a couple of miles NW just below Uckfield.

(6) & (7) are views from Google Earth, rotated to face the right (SW) direction. The first is an early spring one (less obscuring foliage) - as Cliff says, even the telegraph poles are in the right place. The place where I believe the picture was taken is marked 'A'. The second image is an earlier (2004) one in summer, blurred but useful because it shows that Wyndham may not have had to add foliage to hide the mill building - in it (and in #3) there are already obscuring trees. He does, though, seem to have brought the edging clumps of reeds on the right-hand side further in to narrow the view.

'B' in the first satellite image marks the spot where another Tickerage view by Wyndham on ArtUK must have been painted, one that looks in the opposite direction - from downstream of the pool back up towards the sluice & the lane, the fence (only slightly bowed top) & the red wall, and beyond the edge of the house: http://bit.ly/29WbHBW

This splendid aerial view (looking west over the house towards the mill) gives a very good idea of the surroundings: http://bit.ly/2a1Aw0h

For some reason the system has annoyingly re-arranged the order of those attachments - refer to the nos.

I don't agree that the Manchester picture ( http://bit.ly/1tsE3wm ) is also of Tickerage - both the topography and the style of buildings are very different. Here is a late 1930s view of the mill building (from the W, looking E towards the house), and you can see it is mainly clapboard and has no chimney: http://bit.ly/2aDj9CU . It looks much the same today, as another aerial view shows: http://bit.ly/2amttQm (click top right to enlarge these drone shots). Its relationship to the larger Mill Cottage (in the foreground) is rather different, too. The Manchester work has in any case acquired a very specific and other title from somewhere, and there seems no immediate reason to doubt it. I feel that the topographies of the other paintings suggested as perhaps also of Tickerage don't really fit either, even allowing for artistic licence.

Sorry, I meant to say well done to Grant and Cliff for nailing this. The only reason I've added all the detail and images is to provide full visual evidence - the Collection can then feel confident about adding 'Tickerage Mill' to the title, should they so choose.

Thanks very much to Cliff and Osmund for all the additional research undertaken. I believe the evidence presented above is conclusive in identifying the painting titled 'The Pink Boat', held by Salford Museum and Art Gallery, as having been painted at Tickerage Mill near Blackboys in East Sussex. It is my recommendation that Art UK should advise the collection of our findings and recommend that they consider amending the title of the painting to read 'The Pink Boat, Tickerage Mill'.

Thanks Grant. The collection has been contacted about this recommendation.