Henry Scott Tuke, R.A., R.W.S.

Mr Johnson of Bootle (according to the artist's register)

Christie's, London, 8 March 1935, lot 104

Christie's, London, 4 November 1966, lot 59

London, Royal Academy, 1912, no. 555.

London, Fine Art Society, The Country Painters Society, 2nd Exhibition, 1910

Royal Academy Pictures, exh. cat., 1912, p. 71, reproduced.

Maria Tuke Sainsbury, Henry Scott Tuke R.A., R.W.S. - A Memoir, 1933, p.146

David Wainwright and Catherine Dinn, Henry Scott Tuke 1858-1929 – Under Canvas, 1989, p.104

The Secret Cave is included in the artist’s register of paintings in the archive of Tate Britain which states that it was ‘Painted from Isa Watson at Pennance December of 1909 (altered in 1910 or 1911)’.

The Secret Cave is a rare depiction of a female nude by Tuke and perhaps the most successful of the small group painted between 1905 and 1909. In 1889 he had painted Perseus and Andromeda (present whereabouts unknown) with a bound and naked princess being saved from a sea-monster – it was an attempt to paint a noble, classical subject but is comically unconvincing. It was more than fifteen years before he painted another significant female nude.

Isa Watson seems to have been the only female model who posed for Tuke repeatedly. She was one of group of professional models who lived in Shepherd’s Bush around the turn of the twentieth century – on Sunday 2nd July 1905 Tuke cycled from Hanwell to negotiate a fee with Miss Watson for her to visit Cornwall and pose. She arrived on 31 July and early the next morning, before breakfast so that they could avoid the tourists and local onlookers, Tuke and Watson went down to the seashore and she posed naked among the rocks and shallows. She spent two months that summer on the Cornish coast posing for both nude figures in The Pearl of 1905 (present whereabouts unknown). She returned to Cornwall in the summer of 1906 and was painted clothed for Return from Fishing in 1907 (private collection). In 1909 she made her third visit and posed for The Pearl, The Shell and the present work, The Secret Cave. It must have been a challenging job for Miss Watson, posing precariously on a rock without any clothes in December. At least she had the welcoming home of Johnny Jackett and his wife Sallie to warm her up after posing – Johnny was a regular model and friend of Tuke and he and Sallie became very fond of Isa Watson.

The Secret Cave is painted on the reverse of a canvas that Tuke had painted a sketch for the boy on the right in Three Companions of 1905 (private collection).