A Victorian Marine Oil Painting by Thomas Rose Miles ‘Breezy morning in the downs’

Thomas Rose Miles (fl.1869-1910)

Thomas Rose Miles specialized in marine scenes, often of the north east of England. Working in London, his paintings of stormy seas and turbulent waters, often including the human element battling against the odds, were exhibited in the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Hibernian Society, and Arthur Tooth and Sons Gallery in London. Thomas Rose Miles had a popular following amongst the working men of the ports, since his lively depictions were often of their bravery in the face of the challenge.

Signed reverso  Thomas Rose Miles ‘Breezy morning in the downs’.

The downs are a roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Forelandin southern England. In 1639 the Battle of the Downs took place here, when the dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge in the neutral English waters. From the Elizabethan era onwards, the presence of the Downs helped to make Deal one of the premier ports in England, and in the 19th Century, it was equipped with its own telegraph and timeball tower to enable ships to set their own chronometers.