Stott masterpiece to make an impression

AN important example of British Impressionism by Oldham artist William Stott will go on display in his home town after being acquired for the nation for £1.5 million.

Le Passeur (The Ferryman) is currently being exhibited at Tate Britain in London until January, after it was bought with donations from the likes of The National Lottery and Art Fund.

The 1881 painting, which had been privately owned for years, will then tour just a handful of places, including Gallery Oldham in Greaves Street.

Stott, who lived from 1847 to 1900, was a mill-owner's son - his father Abraham ran the Osborne Mill at Busk - who became a leading figure among the group of British artists influenced by French naturalism in the closing decades of the nineteenth century.

His three elder brothers went into the family business, which left the way clear for Stott's life to take the pattern he decided and his father encouraged and subsidised his early student years.

He attended Oldham School of Art and Manchester School of Art before training in Paris and exhibiting several works at the Paris Salon.

These included Le Passeur which he painted at the village of Grez-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau in France which had become a centre for artists from across Europe and America.

It depicts two girls waiting for a ferryman to take them home at dusk but is also about the passage of life, the older girl contemplating her future.

It will visit Gallery Oldham from January to April 2019 and Rebecca Hill, the gallery's collections co-ordinator (art) said: "It's a really good example of his work. It's brilliant that we will be able to show it with his other works in our collection as we have the biggest collection of Stotts in the world. It was on show here before in 2003/4."

Stott signed himself "of Oldham" because he was proud of his roots but also so he was not mixed up with another well-known painter of the time, Edward Stott from Rochdale who had been christened William.

A friend of American artist James Whistler, Stott suffered ill health and died on a ferry to Northern Ireland when he was only 42.