Born at Uxbridge, Sussex, in 1872, Ethel Carrick was the daughter of an English draper. She was trained at the Slade School of Art, London, under Henry Tonks (1862-1937) and Frederick Brown (1851-1941) between 1899-1903. Carrick first exhibited her work in London in 1903, and in 1904 commenced exhibiting in Paris, which she continued to do for many years. She married Emanuel Phillips Fox in London in 1905. She travelled extensively, visiting Europe, Africa and Australia.

This painting of Balmoral Beach dates from 1908 or from 1913 to 1916. The subject is a quintessentially Impressionist theme: a middle class family enjoying leisure hours beyond the urban reach. Carrick Fox’s treatment, however, is Post-Impressionist, with its two-dimensional arrangement of forms and emphasis on abstraction. Specificity is sacrificed under the broad, flattening, applications of colour. The artist focuses on the rhythmic interplay of forms and building up a rich textured surface through broken and vigorous brushwork. The family group, washed in the deep tones of late afternoon shadow, contrasts strongly with the high key of the middle and backgrounds: the brilliant cream sand and dazzling blue sea. Carefully placed yellow, red and purple accents add decorative notes to the secondary figures. The horizon line is high; tilting up the scene and flattening out the perspective, ensuring that visual attention returns to the primary motif of the picnicking family group.