Pages

▼

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

View of the Thames by Childe Hassam

View of the Thames (1889) by Childe Hassam
watercolour
I'm very fond of paintings by Childe Hassam but only came across his painting of the Thames very recently.  I wasn't even aware he'd ever paid a visit to London.

Behind the boats is a view of Charing Cross Railway Bridge with Embankment Gardens and Cleopatra's Needle on the right and the Houses of Parliament in the background.  The Thames Embankment would still be very new when this was painted.

The mixing of pigments on the paper is very attractive and lifts what are ostensibly grey buildings and grey water into some far more interesting.  Why shouldn't be water and sky be yellow?  It seems entirely appropriate.

I spotted it partly because I saw some boats very like this last Saturday moored in the River Thames outside Old Billingsgate Market

Boats participating in the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant Flotilla


at

2 comments:

  1. Penny7 June 2012 at 10:11

    I have been loving this series of paintings, old and modern of the Thames, so interesting to see from afar things I will probably ne ver see and so well researched by you.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rodrica Tilley7 June 2012 at 13:38

    Thank you for the lovely Hassam watercolor. It is truly the bright spot in my day...so far. Inventive, composed perfectly...a joy.

    ReplyDelete

Did you appreciate the post? Consider leaving a a comment and/or subscribing to this blog - future posts will then go straight to your feed reader or inbox.

COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED but please note:
* Keeping comments on topic is appreciated
* Best not to say anything you might regret later
* Comments are always moderated
* Identity is checked; anonymous comments are generally not published
* HTML is permitted, but links are checked and spam is not published