Measuring nearly two metres across and a metre and half high, this vast evocative, and dramatic scene of a ship stricken by plague was painted in 1900 by one of Poole’s most successful and prolific artists, Bernard Finnegan Gribble.
It’s been suggested that Bernard Gribble has painted ‘almost every historic event that took place on water’. He specialised in excitement and adventure on the high seas, from chaotic battles to swashbuckling pirates to heroic rescues all reproduced on a vast scale with a keen eye for historical detail, even if he could be accused of romanticisation!
On at least one occasion he became a vital eyewitness to a historic scene when, commissioned to paint pictures of the interred German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919, he was among the first people to notice that the crews were intentionally sinking their ships to keep them out of British hands. His hastily taken photographs and sketches, which he later turned into a monumental oil painting, are among the only first-hand visual records of this momentous event.
By the time he moved to Poole in the late 1920s or early 1930s Gribble was already a well-established and successful artist. He became chairman of the Poole and East Dorset Art Society when the prestigious club could boast luminaries like Augustus John and Henry Lamb as members. Principal of the Poole School of Art Percy Wise believed, ‘no-one could paint the sea so well as Gribble’ but he was also an in-demand illustrator for magazines like The Graphic or stories like the tales of Arthur Conan Doyle’s pirate, Captain Sharkey.
After his wife Nellie died in 1963, a year after her husband, she kindly left a huge collection of his work to Poole Museum including paintings, sketches and photographs meaning the museum holds one of the best collections of his work in the world.
Although The Plague Ship topped the polls among the public for inclusion at Poole Museum, with so many amazing Gribble artworks in the collection it was a tough competition! You can see many more of his paintings on Art UK and see eight of the museum’s favourites in this curation.
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.
The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!