This picture depicts the sea beyond 'The Bar' at Salcombe. 'The 'Bar' is a sand bar, effectively a ridge of sand, which stretches across part of the the entrance to Salcombe harbour in Devon. The notorious sand bar creates an area of shallow water, making it extremely hazardous to navigate.

The Artist Arthur Clayden (1855 - 1944), was noted as a natural historian, earth scientist and cloud-watcher, so it is no surprise that when he painted a picture, he chose a natural phenomenon as its subject.

About the Artist

Arthur William Clayden was born in Boston, Lincolnshire. He attended Christ's College Cambridge, graduating in 1877 with a degree in Natural Sciences and an MA in 1880. In the late 1880s Clayden is recorded as teaching science at Bath College and also being an 'Extension Lectuer' - a sort of 'outreach' lecturer who gave university lectures for different community groups.

In 1894 he was appointed to the post of Principal at the Royal Albert Memorial College, Exeter where he also occupied the Chairs of Geology and Physics. (This organisation became the University College of the South West, and ultimately the University of Exeter.) In Clayden's time the College was situated in what is now the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Exeter. He was to remain there until 1920.

Records show that Clayden's interest in earth sciences and his desire to share his knowledge was manifested in a series of public lantern-slide lectures around the turn of the 20th century. Subjects included 'Cloud Problems in Astronomy', 'Orion', 'Some Chapters in the History of Devon' 'Thunderstorms', 'Sunshine', 'Cloud Altitudes in Devon', 'Nebulae' and 'Some Extinct Monsters'.

About the painting

The Sand Bar at Salcombe sits, at its highest point, just 50cm below the water's surface when at low tide, making it dangerous for seafaring vessels to enter the harbour. To the left of the picture, the rocks to the edge of the Sand Bar can be seen.

However the Sand Bar itself is not the focus of this painting. The artist clearly appreciates the coastal scene but has also included, for extra interest, a 'waterspout' (a small rotating column of air and water mist over the water). This is a fair weather waterspout which can form along the dark flat base of a line of developing cumulus clouds. It develops on the surface of the water and works upward. By the time the funnel is visible, the waterspout is fully formed.

The inclusion of this meteorological phenomenon brings together the artist's interest in earth science (particularly clouds) and his painting skills to create a visually pleasing scene which also appeals to the viewer's curiosity.

A further note on the Sand Bar, Salcombe...

The Sand Bar at Salcombe provided the inspiration for Alfred Lord Tennyson's last poem. Tennyson stayed at Salcombe towards the end of his life, and it is believed that this poem was written as his own elegy. The poem describes someone crossing of the sand bar, led by the 'pilot', from the river of life, over the sandbar, into death that lies beyond in the open ocean - 'the boundless deep'.

Acknowledgements

Biographical Register of Christs college 1505-1905, Compiled by John Piele

Lucerna Magic Lantern Web Resource, lucerna.exeter.ac.uk, items 7006465,7006453, 7006366, 7006431, 7006384, 7006326 and 7006336.

American National ocean service website: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/waterspout.html

Project Gutenberg

The Geological Society, Lyell Collection: "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London Volume 100, Issue 1-4, Proceedings - Arthur Clayden Obituary'