Painted in 1924 the present work is an earlier version of one of Stanley Cursiter's most loved and famous paintings Linklater and Greig Entering Entering Yesnaby Noust (1931), now held in the collects ion of the Stromness Museum and illustrated on the cover of Pamela Beasant's monograph Stanley Cursiter, A Life of the Artist.
Like the later painting the present work depicts two Stromness fishermen William Linklater and Robert Greig on their Orkney yole Margaret entering the geo at Yesnaby on the west coast of of the Orkney mainland. The geo at Yesnaby is a spectacular location with towering sea cliffs enclosing the inlet and its heavy and boiling seas. Linklater and Greig would spend the summer months in this rich fishing ground whilst the young Stanley Cursiter would watch on from the cliffs above. Cursiter knew both men well and recalled painting the present work in a letter to Linklater:
'Linklater and Greig is the boat I know so well making a fine entrance into Yesnaby on the top of a good Atlantic swell! You will remember that I spent a good deal of t.mes working on the rocks and watching the sea on that bit of cliff near the kirn, and I had one sketch of it with the boat coming in...'
Cursiter is able to capture quite magnificently the small fishing boat being swept along on the swirling and breaking swell. The cropped composition of the work focuses the viewer on the boat and its two occupants whilst also giving a sense of the extraordinary scale of the cliffs beyond the confines of the canvas. The present work and the later version stand as a test.mes
nt to the incredible coastal landscape of Orkney and as a tribute to the bravery and skill of those individuals who fished these waters.