Painting a River Pageant

Today, on the River Thames in the centre of London, crowds will see the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.  It's part of the official celebrations on this festive weekend which marks the 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne of England.  There are some who are saying we've seen nothing like this in 350 years - in terms of the nature of the event and the number of vessels on the Thames.

Westminster Bridge from the north on Lord Mayor's Day (1746)
Oil on canvas, 96 x 137.5 cm
Location: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A history of river pageants

Previous monarchs and the City of London have used the River Thames for spectacular royal celebrations and pageants including:

• Anne Boleyn's coronation:  The coronation procession from Greenwich to the Tower of London on 29 May 1533 was a grand spectacle

Fifty barges of the London livery companies, decorated with banners and draped in gold cloth, accompanied the lavishly apparelled barges of the Lord Mayor and Crown, with a further 250 vessels forming an impressive armada.

• On 23 August 1662, King Charles II and Queen Catherine of Braganza were greeted by an extravagant pageant involving the twelve livery companies on their arrival at Whitehall from Hampton Court
• on 17 July 1717 a musical concert was held on the River Thames for King George I and his court.  Handel was commissioned to write 'Water Music', for wind and strings.

On Wednesday Evening… the King took Water at Whitehall in an open Barge… and went up River towards Chelsea. Many other Barges with Persons of Quality attended, and so great a Number of Boats, that the whole River in a manner was cover’d; a City Company’s Barge was employ’d for the Musick, wherein were 50 instruments of all sorts, who play’d all the Way from Lambeth… the finest Symphonies compos’d express for this Occasion by Mr. Hendel; which his Majesty liked so well that he caus’d it to be plaid over three times in the going and returning.
The Daily Courant

Painting river pageants

In terms of paintings of pageants on the River Thames, Canaletto is the probably most well known artist.

I've tried working out how Canaletto would have created his paintings of river pageants.  This one in particular perplexes me.  While his perspective may be fine, he's not renowned for getting his proportions right or even painting things where they are actually are!

For example, the river looks too wide.  However, at the time it was painted the River Thames was a lot wider than it is today - it's been channelled and an Embankment built since then

But how do you tackle an aerial perspective of a view of the Thames before there was any means of being up in the air?  I haven't got a clue - any ideas?

If it was painted from a bridge - which bridge?  The location of the painter seems to be the vicinity of the Hungerford Rail Bridge and the current Golden Jubilee Footbridges - but so far as I'm aware they weren't there at the time.

So where was he painting from?  Or is it completely from his imagination?

The Web Gallery of Art provides an explanation of the painting London: Westminster Bridge from the North on Lord Mayor's Day

In this picture he combines a view of its whole span with a depiction of festivities, which, although tamer than the Venetian spectacles he generally painted, partially recall them. The celebrations accompanied the appointment of the new Lord Mayor of London. The largest City Barge is shown taking him to Westminster Hall, by the Abbey at the right, where he will be sworn in. The prominent building on the horizon to the left of it is St John's Church, Smith Square, and over on the other side of the river is Lambeth Palace, the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. All the other spectacular barges are those of the different city guilds (Skinners, Goldsmiths, Fishmongers, Clothworkers, Vinters, Merchant Taylors, Mercers and Dyers); a number of them are firing salutes to honour the Mayor. In order to encapsulate all of this activity within such a broad panorama Canaletto has adopted an imaginary vantage point high above the Thames.

Westminster Bridge

One of the things which I didn't know is that the Westminster Bridge in the painting was relatively new at the time - and is not the one which is there today.  The first bridge opened in 1750 - some 3 years before this painting was painted.  However it was troubled by subsidence and had to be replaced in the nineteenth century and a new cast iron bridge was opened in 1862.

Below you can see the very famous painting by Canaletto - painted while the first Westminster Bridge was being constructed

London: Seen Through an Arch of Westminster Bridge (1747) by Canaletto
oil on canvas, 57 x 95 cm
Location: Syon House, Middlesex

Painting a River Pageant today

I wonder who's going to be out there today collecting material and generating sketches and studies for painting the pageant?  Who's the modern day Canaletto of figurative paintings of the River Thames?  Do we have one?

It did occur to me that various painters might have a go at painting the River Pageant today.  I expect there might be members of the Wapping Group out on the banks of the Thames somewhere attempting to paint today.

I know I had planned to go down to the River today - but that was before the rain!

It rained on the Coronation Day in 1953 - and it's raining again today (as in I couldn't see Canary Wharf at all this morning - which means very low rain clouds along the Thames!).  Which means my planned vantage point is going to be overrun with people trying to stay dry!

Which is partly why we went down to the Thames yesterday - while it was still dry and sunny - to see the Avenue of Sail - which comprises the sailing ships gathered  in the Pool of London either side of the Tower of London.

Billingsgate Fish Market in 1876
By Illustrated London News [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I tried sketching a couple of Thames Barges outside Old Billingsgate Market yesterday.  It was very weird to be seeing the type of vessels which might have visited the market in the past, moored right next to it.

Thames Sailing Barges at Billingsgate 2nd June 2012

It's the first time I've ever tried to sketch anything which moved constantly while sketching - from side to side and down (ther tide was going out) - and also while the owners were putting up the bunting for today's Pageant!  I'll come and leave a link here when I've posted it online.

If you had a go at painting the Pageant why not enter The Big Diamond Jubilee Art Challenge

Links:

• About Canaletto - Italian Painter
• previous posts on The Art of the Landscape:
• Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant and Canaletto's Thames Pageants #1
• Canaletto - Painting Britain

Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant and Canaletto's Thames Pageants #1

The River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day (1746)

Canaletto
oil on canvas, 26.8 x 37.6 cm
The Lobkowicz Collections, Prague Castle, Czech Republic

There's going to be a Pageant on the River Thames to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee of her accession to the Throne.

1,000 boats are going to make their way down the Thames on Sunday 3rd June - mustering between Hammersmith and Battersea and dispersing from Tower Bridge to West India Docks.

The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant has its very own website.  The BBC is also going to be out filming people painting from a bridge - although my own feeling is that the only way to capture the view - as Canaletto did - is to get up much higher than a bridge.  I've got a couple of spots in mind!

There are a couple of famous Canaletto paintings of pageants on the Thames.  The one featured above is currently being portrayed as a mural on a temporary wall at the entrance to London Bridge station.

The painting is currently on loan to the The National Maritime Museum (one of the Royal Museums at Greenwich) for Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames the exhibition to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

If you want to find out more about Canaletto and his verdute or "view paintings" try my resource About Canaletto - Italian Painter

A veduta (Italian for "view"; plural vedute) is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, actually more often print, of a cityscape or some other vista.

The Cityscape: modern perspectives on London

I normally stick pretty much to drawing and painting on this blog - however now and again I'm happy to include photography.  This post is about cityscapes and a recent competition run by the National Gallery in conjunction with Flickr to try and capture London in a photograph. 

The cityscape

A cityscape is a view - typically represented by a drawing, painting or photograph - of a city.  The cityscape is the urban equivalent of the landscape.  It's also known as the townscape although this tends to denote differences in the size and significance of the urban environment rather than the size and significance of the artwork.

There have been a number of artists particularly renowned for cityscape scenes.  They include Wenceslas Holler - who was renowned for his views of London - and Canaletto and the Italian verdute painters.  Canaletto of course visited London and lived her for a period of years and painted scenes up and down the Thames.

The Thames and the City of London from Richmond House (1747) - by Canaletto

We are probably most used to thinking of cityscapes as skylines and outlines - with the shape of the buildings characterising the nature of the city. 

Modern Perspectives on London

To coincide with the exhibitions Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals and Modern Perspectives, the National Gallery invited you to contribute your own modern perspective of a cityscape to the Modern Perspectives Flickr competition group – inspired by Ben Johnson, Clive Head and Canaletto.

You can see the Modern Perspectives competition winners here.

I contacted Bob Lambourne, one of the winners, who had produced a photo which both appealed to me and at the same time intrigued me.

Thames Sunrise by Bob Lambourne
(courtesy of Bob Lambourne)

This is a view I'm really familiar with.  I worked for three years in an office over looking the Thames just the other side of this bridge.  Every time I walk past - on the Thames Path on the South Bank of the Thames, I look at it and think about how to do it - and Bob has answered the question!  Now I know where I was going wrong - I keep walking past at and looking at the wrong time of day!

I contacted Bob for permission to use his photo on his blog and found a bit more about how he produced it.  Here's what he had to say

I had got up really early one Saturday morning to capture the light of dawn on the river, it must have been about 6.30 am when I took the picture using a Canon 5D with a 28mm lens. I haven't done much more other than a few tweaks to the curves and levels in photoshop. The picture was hand-held (I hate lugging tripods around with me, they make me feel so conspicuous.

In case you are interested the picture has also been selected to appear in "The Spirit of London" a commemorative book presented to every Olympic and Para-Olympic athlete at the London 2012 games by Mayor Boris Johnson.

I am not a professional photographer and work as a graphic designer in the marketing sector. I discovered my passion for the art back in the 80's when I took a 4 year photography course at night school in the days when the ILEA and GLC were still around. 

I guess the best quote on photography and the one that sums me up is:

"I take photographs with love, so I try to make them art objects. But I take them for myself first and foremost - that is important." Jaques Henri Lartigue

You can see the other photographs which were entered in the competition in the Flickr Group Pool.  For some, the notion that it was about London got a little bit lost in the translation!

You can also buy prints of this photo from Bob.  Try contacting him via his Flickr Account boberator or his website or

Links:

• Canaletto - Resources for Art Lovers
• The Art of the Landscape: National Gallery: "Venice - Canaletto and his rivals"
• The Art of the Landscape: Canaletto - Painting Britain
• Bob Lambourne - on Flickr, at Saatchi Online - plus his website
• Flickr - Modern Perspectives: National Gallery Photography Competition

National Gallery: "Venice - Canaletto and his Rivals"

More places to paint!  This is where I'm going tomorrow - to Venice, via the National Gallery and their latest exhibition Venice - Canaletto and his Rivals

This exhibition presents the finest assembly of Venetian views since the much-celebrated display in Venice in 1967. It features works by Canaletto and all the major practitioners of the genre.

Remarkably, considering the dominant role of British patronage in this art form, 'Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals' is the first exhibition of its kind to be organised in the UK.

This landmark exhibition presents the finest assembly of Venetian views by Canaletto and his 18th-century rivals to be seen in a generation. Bringing together around 50 major loans from the public and private collections of the UK, Europe and North America, Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals highlights the extraordinary variety of Venetian view painting, juxtaposing masterpieces by Canaletto with key works by artists including Luca Carlevarijs, Michele Marieschi, Bernardo Bellotto and Francesco Guardi.

I'll be doing a review of the exhibition on Making A Mark and will insert a link here when I've done that.

Below is a video introduction to the exhibition



Venice - Caneletto and his Rivals 
National gallery Sainsbury Wing | 13 October – 16 January 2011
Admission charge
Catalogue

You can find out more about Canaletto on my resource site Canaletto - Resources for Art Lovers

Canaletto - Painting Britain

Westminster Bridge from the north on Lord Mayor's Day by Canaletto
Oil on canvas, 96 x 137.5 cm
Yale Center for British Art, New Havensource: Wikimedia

I was hugely disappointed yesterday to be unable to attend the lecture on Canaletto: Grand Designs is the title of a talk given by Martin Gayford at the Museum of London organised by Gresham College.

I had anticipated that it would be popular, had emailed Gresham College to find out more and to book a place and never got a reply! I found out yesterday that they don't bother taking bookings as it's "too much work" for them. As a result I'm afraid I have to take back my recommendation to attend the series of lectures as there's simply no guarantee you'll get in. It's very frustrating to get there and then be turned away.

It's not like they need to issue a ticket. They could operate the beautifully simple, efficient and economic system the National Gallery uses for their lectures - acknowledging an email which you then print off.

The woman from Greshams talked about a video being available - but as with the booking (or non booking system) there are no details on their website although they certainly do create audio and videos of their lectures. I guess I'll have to check back at some point to see what happens.

I shall be making sure of a seat for next week's lecture about Monet's River of Dreams!

[UPDATE:  The following are now available:

Canaletto: Grand Designs - Monday, 8 March 2010, Museum of London]
I've decided to make a resource about Canaletto in any case as he's such an intriguing landscape artist.

plus Martin Gayford's powerpoint lecture materials

plus you can listen to the lecture and download and save both the video and the audio.

This is what the Web Gallery of Art - which I think is one of the best of the art history resources which can be found online - has to say about the Canaletto painting at the top of this post. This is a link to their biography of Canaletto

Canaletto is first recorded in England in spring 1746, and his earliest paintings of London are depictions of the new Westminster Bridge, a subject he was to portray from various vantage points. The bridge was not actually completed until four years after this work was painted.
In this picture he combines a view of its whole span with a depiction of festivities, which, although tamer than the Venetian spectacles he generally painted, partially recall them. The celebrations accompanied the appointment of the new Lord Mayor of London. The largest City Barge is shown taking him to Westminster Hall, by the Abbey at the right, where he will be sworn in. The prominent building on the horizon to the left of it is St John's Church, Smith Square, and over on the other side of the river is Lambeth Palace, the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. All the other spectacular barges are those of the different city guilds (Skinners, Goldsmiths, Fishmongers, Clothworkers, Vinters, Merchant Taylors, Mercers and Dyers); a number of them are firing salutes to honour the Mayor. In order to encapsulate all of this activity within such a broad panorama Canaletto has adopted an imaginary vantage point high above the Thames.
Web Gallery of Art - London: Westminster Bridge from the North on Lord Mayor's Day

London Through the Eyes of Foreign Artists

Townscapes are an important type of landscape. A series of talks seeks to inform about London Through the Eyes of Foreign Artists. These are organised by Gresham College which is an independent educational institution based in Barnard's Inn, Holborn.

The first one, which I missed, was on Monday this week. Foreign Artists in 16th Century London was about the foreign artists, such as the German, Hans Holbein, and Netherlandish artists such as Hans Eworth and William Scrouts who were working in London in the sixteenth century.

The next ones are much more about artists who have portrayed the landscape of London and in particular the River Thames.

The cover of Canaletto
by JG Links (Phaidon).

The book cover is part of a painting
Canaletto, London, The City seen through one of the Arches of Westminster Bridge, c. 1746. Collection of the Duke of Northumberland

Canaletto: Grand Designs is the title of a talk given by Martin Gayford at the Museum of London on Monday 8th March at 1.00pm

In 1746 the great Venetian artist, Canaletto, moved to London following the market and wealth for his work. Nine years later, he left the city attacked by the critics as repetitive and a fake.

What was 18th Century London like to be the centre of such hope and disappointment? How did Canaletto feel about the city, and how are we to assess these views today?

Monet: The River of Dreams is a lecture by Professor John House (Walter H Annenberg Professor at the Courtauld Institute of Art) on 15th March at 1.00pm at the Museum of London.

Claude Monet visited London numerous times between 1870 and 1901, painting some of his most important works in the city.

Why was he repeatedly attracted back to the foggy and overpopulated urban capital when his impressionist work was otherwise so concerned with light and nature? What was the city like when he visited it in the 1870s and 80s? How was he received by the London art establishment at that time?

The final lecture - which i'm less interested in is Feliks Topolski: Eye-Witness to the 20th Century