LONDON.- A beautiful picture by the prolific British maritime and figurative painter, Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929), entitled Sleeping Sailor, is to be sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street, as part of The Marine Sale on 22 March 2011. Initially sold for £15 to Arthur Taylor, it has now attracted a pre-sale estimate of £30,000 – 50,000.

Sleeping Sailor was painted on board a derelict French barque, Mazatlan, which Tuke used as a temporary floating studio during the summer of 1905. His model, shown posing on the boom, was called Harry Cleave. In an excerpt from his diary on 16 May 2005, Tuke writes: “Another brilliant day. Harry on the mizzen boom.”

Born in York in 1858, Henry Scott Tuke and his family moved to Falmouth in 1859. Later, he moved to Newlyn, Cornwall, where he became part of the Newlyn School of painters. He is best-known for his pictures of nude boys and young men. This picture was exhibited at Falmouth Art Gallery in 1905.