Cliff End, Studland

The painting depicts an extensive view of Standfast Point. It enables Van der Weyden to capture the shimmering reflective surface of the sea and the translucent qualities of its shallows in the sunny atmospheric conditions. Cliff End, Studland was purchased by the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum in 1936.

Van der Weyden was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and came to England aged three. He studied at the Slade School of Art, London. Inspired by Impressionism, in 1890-91 and again in 1895 he was in Paris where he studied art at the Académie Julian. He was one of a number of progressive artists in the early 20th century drawn to the British coast and landscape. His bright colour palette and reductive, stylized technique were influenced by French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and the Bloomsbury Group.