Lot Essay
In 1887, after an extended visit to Egypt, Logsdail settled in Primrose Hill to begin the series of London views by which he is now best remembered. In his memoirs he noted: 'I had always thought that London, of all places in the world, ought to be painted, but it appeared too formidable, too unassailable... I do not wonder that so few have even dared to touch it. However, I did take courage to try and leave a few records of it, only after a very few years to acknowledge myself beaten.'
The series, of which the present picture is the first, consisted of The Bank of England (exh. R.A. 1887, no. 723), St. Martin's in the Fields (exh. R.A. 1888, no. 548), Sunday in the City (exh. R.A. 1889, no. 18) and The Ninth of November (exh. R.A. 1890, no. 1028), a picture depicting the Lord Mayor's procession. The paintings all attempted to capture the bustle, noise and smog of contemporary London, and for this reason were not immediately popular with a public used to anecdote and idealism. Whilst critics thought that such a realistic approach was suitable for Logsdail's Venetian views, where the city's architecture and population provided sufficient exoticism, the modern urban metropolis laid bare was not thought to be a subject suitable for art. Reviewing The Ninth of November, Claude Phillips wrote: 'The hideous prose of modern life in a great city is only then a fit theme for Art when it goes to the root of things and presents motives at once human and typical' (Art Journal, 1890, p. 170). Similar criticisms were laid against pictures exhibited by the Impressionists in Paris and subsequently against the 'London Impressionists' exhibition organised by Walter Sickert at the Goupil Gallery in 1889. Such deep rooted antipathy towards 'the hideous prose of modern life' perhaps explains why the present picture failed to find a buyer when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1887. The picture was however one of a series of eight by Logsdail which was photographically reproduced in The Graphic of 1890, illustrating articles by Thomas Archer which promoted the delights of sight-seeing in London by bus.
'With a yellowish sky and St. Paul's in a bluish haze, ... with a whiff of steam from a train passing over the Viaduct and the traffic in the street below', as he recorded in his memoirs, Logsdail sat and painted in a room in Fleet Street where he could hear the newsboys announcing the latest developments in the trial of the infamous Mrs Maybrick. The resulting canvas captures almost photographically the to and fro in front of a great London landmark in the late 1880s, and in contrast to the reception it originally received has been subsequently highly prized by collectors.
We are grateful to Robert Upstone for his help in preparing this and the following entry.
The series, of which the present picture is the first, consisted of The Bank of England (exh. R.A. 1887, no. 723), St. Martin's in the Fields (exh. R.A. 1888, no. 548), Sunday in the City (exh. R.A. 1889, no. 18) and The Ninth of November (exh. R.A. 1890, no. 1028), a picture depicting the Lord Mayor's procession. The paintings all attempted to capture the bustle, noise and smog of contemporary London, and for this reason were not immediately popular with a public used to anecdote and idealism. Whilst critics thought that such a realistic approach was suitable for Logsdail's Venetian views, where the city's architecture and population provided sufficient exoticism, the modern urban metropolis laid bare was not thought to be a subject suitable for art. Reviewing The Ninth of November, Claude Phillips wrote: 'The hideous prose of modern life in a great city is only then a fit theme for Art when it goes to the root of things and presents motives at once human and typical' (Art Journal, 1890, p. 170). Similar criticisms were laid against pictures exhibited by the Impressionists in Paris and subsequently against the 'London Impressionists' exhibition organised by Walter Sickert at the Goupil Gallery in 1889. Such deep rooted antipathy towards 'the hideous prose of modern life' perhaps explains why the present picture failed to find a buyer when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1887. The picture was however one of a series of eight by Logsdail which was photographically reproduced in The Graphic of 1890, illustrating articles by Thomas Archer which promoted the delights of sight-seeing in London by bus.
'With a yellowish sky and St. Paul's in a bluish haze, ... with a whiff of steam from a train passing over the Viaduct and the traffic in the street below', as he recorded in his memoirs, Logsdail sat and painted in a room in Fleet Street where he could hear the newsboys announcing the latest developments in the trial of the infamous Mrs Maybrick. The resulting canvas captures almost photographically the to and fro in front of a great London landmark in the late 1880s, and in contrast to the reception it originally received has been subsequently highly prized by collectors.
We are grateful to Robert Upstone for his help in preparing this and the following entry.