WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

British, 1853

WA-00030916

Headingley, UK

Photography

Representation

None documented

Institutional Exhibitions

Works in Collection

Assets Indexed

Authority-backed Facts

Publications Referenced

80%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (3)

WikidataQ939537 ULAN500031222

MoMA

Selected Institutional Exhibitions

View all exhibitions →

No image

New Acquisitions: Photographs

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1942

Field Verification (4 fields)

4 cross-verified · 0 single-source

BiographyMoMA· 93%✓
Birth yearMoMA· 93%✓
LocationMoMA· 93%✓
NationalityMoMA· 93%✓

Source Registry (1)

MoMA bulk 2026-05-04https://www.moma.org/artists/7671
Tier 1 · Institutional92%

About

Why this artist matters now

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe was a British photographer known for his documentary photographs of fishing communities and maritime life in Whitby, Yorkshire, between the 1880s and early 1900s. Working with large-format cameras and platinum and gelatin silver prints, he captured the daily labor and social fabric of working-class coastal life with both ethnographic precision and compositional sensitivity. His archive of thousands of glass negatives documents a vanishing way of life and remains a primary historical record of late Victorian and Edwardian working communities.

Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 1mo ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

—

Medium

Photography

Related Artists

6 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

Cleveland Museum of Art Art Institute of Chicago Museum of Modern ArtNew York National Gallery of Art

Canonical record

Artworks (19)

Water Rats

1986 · Photogravure, from "Sun Artists, Number 8" (1891)

Image: 12.6 × 17.7 cm (5 × 7 in.); Paper: 28 × 37.9 cm (11 1/16 × 14 15/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Sunshine and Shadow

1890 · photogravure print

image: 17 x 13 cm (6 11/16 x 5 1/8 in.) sheet: 20 x 15.5 cm (7 7/8 x 6 1/8 in.) mount: 38.4 x 27.8 cm (15 1/8 x 10 15/16 in.)

National Gallery of Art

Dinnertime

1890 · carbon print

image: 24.4 x 29.7 cm (9 5/8 x 11 11/16 in.) sheet: 26.2 x 31.3 cm (10 5/16 x 12 5/16 in.)

National Gallery of Art

Quo Vadis

1890 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 16.1 × 21.2 cm (6 3/8 × 8 3/8 in.); Paper: 17.8 × 22.8 cm (7 1/16 × 9 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Sunshine and Shower

1886 · Photogravure, from "Sun Artists, Number 8" (1891)

Image: 16.9 × 13 cm (6 11/16 × 5 1/8 in.); Paper: 37.7 × 27.9 cm (14 7/8 × 11 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Excitement

1886 · Photogravure, from "Sun Artists, Number 8" (1891)

Image: 11.9 × 18.6 cm (4 11/16 × 7 3/8 in.); Paper: 28 × 38 cm (11 1/16 × 15 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Dinner Time

1886 · Photogravure, from "Sun Artists, Number 8" (1891)

Image: 12.4 × 17.6 cm (4 15/16 × 6 15/16 in.); Paper: 28.1 × 38.1 cm (11 1/8 × 15 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Water Rats

1886 · Carbon print (?)

9 5/8 × 11 3/4" (24.5 × 29.9 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Whitby Fishermen

1885 · carbon print

image: 24.4 x 29.3 cm (9 5/8 x 11 9/16 in.) sheet: 25 x 30 cm (9 13/16 x 11 13/16 in.)

National Gallery of Art

The Penny Hedge

1885 · Gelatin silver print

15.1 × 10.4 cm (image); 15.1 × 10.7 (paper)

Art Institute of Chicago

Milk Donkeys

1885 · Platinum print

Image: 13.2 × 17.9 cm (5 1/4 × 7 1/16 in.); Paper: 14 × 18.5 cm (5 9/16 × 7 5/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

In Puris Naturalibus (In a State of Nature)

1880 · carbon print

image: 22.7 x 29.4 cm (8 15/16 x 11 9/16 in.) sheet: 23.2 x 29.4 cm (9 1/8 x 11 9/16 in.)

National Gallery of Art

Black and White

1880 · Albumen print

Image/paper: 14.8 × 19.9 cm (5 7/8 × 7 7/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Untitled

1875 · albumen print

image/sheet: 12.7 × 20.32 cm (5 × 8 in.)

National Gallery of Art

Untitled (Fern Study)

1875 · albumen print

Image: 14.2 x 19.8 cm (5 9/16 x 7 13/16 in.); Matted: 30.6 x 35.6 cm (12 1/16 x 14 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Untitled (Harbor Scene)

1875 · albumen print from wet collodion negative

Image: 14.2 x 20.5 cm (5 9/16 x 8 1/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Wild Parsley

1873 · Gelatin silver print

Image/paper: 10.4 × 14.9 cm (4 1/8 × 5 7/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Untitled

1873 · Gelatin silver print

15.6 × 20.5 cm (image); 15.9 × 20.9 (paper)

Art Institute of Chicago

Whitby Harbor

1850 · carbon print, toned, from glass negative

Image: 34.3 x 44 cm (13 1/2 x 17 5/16 in.); Paper: 34.8 x 44.5 cm (13 11/16 x 17 1/2 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 66 cm (22 x 26 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

View all 19 artworks →

Artwork sources (5)

19 published of 23 catalogued · 22 with image

Art Institute Chicago
10 published10 img
Nga
5 published5 img
Cleveland Museum of Art
3 published3 img
MoMA
1 publishedof 2 catalogued1 img
+ 1 more source · 3 catalogued, not yet published

Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 8)

21 entries · 2 sources

Dinnertime
1890 · Nga · 4 prov
Wikidata·titleWikidata·mediumWikidata·year_createdWikidata·primary_image_url
Sunshine and Shadow
1890 · Nga · 4 prov
Wikidata·titleWikidata·mediumWikidata·year_createdWikidata·primary_image_url
Whitby Fishermen
1885 · Nga · 4 prov
Wikidata·titleWikidata·mediumWikidata·year_createdWikidata·primary_image_url
The Water Rats
1886 · MoMA · 3 prov
Wikidata·titleWikidata·year_createdWikidata·primary_image_url
In Puris Naturalibus (In a State of Nature)
1880 · Nga · 3 prov
Wikidata·titleWikidata·year_createdWikidata·primary_image_url
Whitby Harbor
1850 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Untitled (Fern Study)
1875 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Untitled (Harbor Scene)
1875 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number

Record

Images

Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland Museum of Art

Art Institute of Chicago

Artsy

Art Institute of Chicago

Relationships

Collections4

Cleveland Museum of Art Art Institute of Chicago Museum of Modern Art National Gallery of Art

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Cleveland Museum of Art

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

National Gallery of Art

Record

Exhibitions and timeline

Group Exhibition New Acquisitions: Photographs

New York · 1942