A graphic monochrome in William Wyllie's inimitable manner. William Lionel Wyllie was the premier British marine artist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1869 through to his death in 1931.
This watercolour is of two colliers discharging coal into lighters on the Thames. Coal was brought to London by colliers from the north of England. Wyllie often used colliers as a subject matter and similiar drawings associated with the coal trade are in the National Maritime Museum, London. The technique he used utilises white gouache to highlight the vessels which were drawn in black on grey paper.
 
Watercolour on coloured paper, highlighted in gouache.
 
c.1887.
 
275 x 385 mm. Sight line.
 
Signed lower right. W.L. Wyllie.