Coastal Cliffs at Noon

Edward Hartley · 1891

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

105 × 85 cm

Hartley's most acclaimed work captures the south coast of England under the hard, brilliant light of midsummer noon — an unusual choice for landscape painters who typically preferred the golden hours. The white chalk cliffs are rendered with almost aggressive brightness, pushed to the threshold of legibility. Seabirds wheel in the blue sky, and the sea below churns with the life of the channel. The painting was purchased from the artist's estate in 1912 and has been in the Meridian collection ever since.