In late May 1907 Frances Hodgkins undertook her second trip to Holland, remaining there for the next fifteen months, earning a respectable living taking in student lodgers. As written by Hodgkins on the back of this painting, Boys Fishing was a gift to one of those students, Theresa Thorp, “the congenial and specially selected companion” with whom she travelled to Paris in 1908.

The three young subjects of Boys Fishing are wearing traditional Dutch caps and clogs and reflect Hodgkins’ awareness of the work of British artist Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947), a leading member of the artists’ group at Newlyn, the small Cornish fishing village which she had first visited in 1902. One of its three subjects sits cross-legged on the approaches to a bridge, engrossed in what he is doing, while the two others lean against the rails behind, watching. 

The trio and the bridge itself are presented simply and directly, with minimal attention to detail, as in the vigorous brushstrokes that define the clumps of trees framing the composition. There is a restrained use of colour in this quiet and contemplative scene, capturing the sense of three young friends lost in their
thoughts.