Friday 1 August 2014

River Thames paintings 1650-1995 part 3

This is part 3 of a 6 – part post on River Thames paintings from 1650 to 1995. For a little background information to the series see part 1 also. For earlier works see part 1 and 2.



1860 John Anderson "The Building of Westminster Bridge" 
oil on canvas 78.7 x 58.4 cm 
Palace of Westminster, London

1860-64 James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Wapping" 
oil on canvas 71.1 x 101.6 cm 
© National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1860c David Roberts "Greenwich Hospital from the Thames" 
oil on canvas 28 x 60.9 cm 
National Maritime Museum, London

1862 David Roberts "Houses of Parliament"

1862 Henry Pether "Westminster from Lambeth" 
oil on canvas 63.5 x 114 cm 
H.M. Government Art Collection, UK

1862 James Abbott McNeill Whistler "The Last of Old Westminster" 
oil on canvas 61 x 78.1 cm 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1862? Walter Greaves "Hammersmith Bridge on Boat-race Day"

The most famous of Greaves’ paintings, a naïve masterpiece that he claimed to have painted when he was aged sixteen in 1862. However, since he was unreliable over dates, its history has never been settled.


1862? Walter Greaves "Hammersmith Bridge on Boat-race Day" 
oil on canvas 91.4 x 139.7 cm 
Tate, London

1862c Henry Pether "Westminster Bridge by Moonlight" 
oil on canvas 60 x 90 cm 
H.M. Government Art Collection, UK

1863 James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Grey and Silver - Old Battersea Reach" 
oil on canvas 50.8 x 68.6 cm 
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1863-65 James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Brown and Silver; Old Battersea Bridge" 
oil on canvas mounted on masonite 63.8 x 76 cm 
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA

before 1930 (probably 1860s) Walter Greaves "An Old London Bridge" 
oil on canvas 65 x 80 cm 
Alfred East Art Gallery, UK

1863 John Wilson Carmichael "Shipping on the Thames" 
oil on canvas 61.8 x 99.5 cm 
Manchester City Galleries, UK

1863 Sir Francis Seymour Haden "Battersea Reach" 
etching on paper 12.7 x 22.9 cm 
Tate, London

1863-68 Walter Greaves "Chelsea Regatta" 
oil on canvas 91.8 x 191.7 cm 
Manchester City Galleries, UK

1863c James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Battersea Reach from Lindsey Houses" 
oil on canvas 76.2 x 50.8 cm

1863c James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Battersea Reach" 
oil on canvas 76.2 x 50.8 cm

1864 James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Chelsea in Ice" 
oil on canvas 18 x 24 cm 
Smithsonian Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington, DC

1864 James Francis Danby "The Houses of Parliament from the River" 
oil on canvas 44.4 x 74.9 cm 
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

1864-68c James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Chelsea Wharf: Grey and Silver" 
oil on canvas 45.8 x 61.5 cm 
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1866c Edwin Edwards "The Thames from a Wharf at Waterloo Bridge" 
oil on canvas 65.4 x 144.8 cm 
Tate, London

1866c George Price Boyce "Night Sketch of the Thames near Hungerford Bridge" 
watercolour on paper 22.2 x 33.7 cm 
Tate, London


1869 Thomas Creswick "The Thames and the Shot Tower" oil on board 5 x 10 cm Wolverhampton Art Gallery UK
The Shot Tower at the Lambeth Lead Works was a shot tower that stood on the South Bank of the Thames between Waterloo and Hungerford Bridges. It was a prominent landmark on the river and featured in a number of paintings. It was built in 1826. In 1950 the gallery chamber at the top of the tower was removed and a steel-framed superstructure was added instead, providing a radio beacon for the 1951 Festival of Britain. It was the only building to be retained on the site for the Festival. It was demolished in 1967 to make way for the Queen Elizabeth Hall.


before 1869 Thomas Creswick "The Thames and the Shot Tower" 
oil on board 5 x 10 cm 
Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK

The Shot Tower, next to the Royal Festival Hall in 1959 
photo: Wikipedia

1869 James Francis Danby "The Thames at Sunset" 
oil on canvas 74.4 x 121.6 cm 
University of Oxford, UK

Walter Greaves 
The son of Charles William Greaves, a Chelsea boat-builder and waterman, Greaves was born in 1846 at Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. His father had been J.M.W. Turner’s boatman. Greaves had initially trained as a shipwright and boatman. Greaves and one of his brothers, Henry Greaves, met Whistler in 1863, introducing him to the sight of the river Thames, and becoming his studio assistants, pupils, and close friends for over twenty years.

The American painter later used these Thames expeditions for inspiration when painting his ‘nocturne’ views of the river at night. “He taught us to paint,” Walter Greaves said, “and we taught him the waterman’s jerk.”


1870s? Walter Greaves "Old Battersea Bridge by Night" ( Study ) 
oil on board 23 x 23 cm 
Chelsea Library, London

1870s? Walter Greaves "Old Battersea Bridge" 
oil on canvas 89.5 x 59.7 cm 
Chelsea Library, London

1872-75c James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge" 
oil on canvas 68.3 x 51.2 cm
 Tate, London

Note: I do not have dates for the following works by Walter Greaves. Greaves died in 1930, but these works are likely to date from from the 1800s:

Walter Greaves "Greaves' Landing Stage" 
oil on canvas 50.8 x 61 cm 
Chelsea Library, London

Walter Greaves "Nocturne in Blue and Gold" 
oil on canvas 28.3 x 46.5 cm 
New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester Arts and Museums Service, UK

1930 before Walter Greaves "Nocturne" 
oil on canvas 24.5 x 33.4 cm 
Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, UK

Walter Greaves "Thames" 
oil on canvas 71.2 x 45.6 cm 
Southampton City Art Gallery, Hampshire, UK

Walter Greaves "The Frozen Thames" 
oil on canvas 63.6 x 76.2 cm 
Leeds Art Gallery, Yorkshire, UK

Walter Greaves "The Old Swan" ( Chelsea ) 
oil on board 55 x 79 cm 
Chelsea Library, London

1930 before Walter Greaves "The Pool of London" 
oil on canvas 61 x 102 cm 
Guildhall Art Gallery, London

Walter Greaves "The Thames" 
oil on canvas 57 x 90 cm 
H.M. Government Art Collection, UK

1870-1900 Walter Greaves (attributed to) "Symphony in Silver and Grey"

It has recently been suggested that  this work, formerly attributed to Whistler, is by his studio assistant and imitator, Walter Greaves, perhaps reworking one of many unfinished canvases sold after Whistler’s bankruptcy in 1879. In the background is Battersea power station which Whistler included in several of his views of the Thames.


Walter Greaves ( attributed to ) "Symphony in Silver and Grey" 
oil on canvas 61 x 45 cm 
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK

1871 Claude Monet "The Thames at London" 
oil on canvas 48.5 x 74.5 
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK

1871 Claude Monet "The Thames at Westminster" 
oil on canvas 47 x 72.5 cm 
National Gallery, London

1871 James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea" 
oil on wood 50.2 x 60.8 cm 
Tate, London

1871 James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Variations in Pink and Grey: Chelsea" 
oil on canvas 40.5 x 62.7 cm

1871c James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Symphony in Grey: Early Morning, Thames" 
oil on canvas 67.5 x 45.7 cm

1872 James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights" 
oil on canvas 50.2 x 74.3 cm 
Tate, London

1872-73c James Abbott McNeill Whistler "Nocturne; Battersea Bridge" 
pastel on brown paper18.1 x 27.94 cm 
Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1872c Frederic Almore Winkfield "Old Fulham Bridge ( ?) " 
oil on canvas 40.2 x 61.2 cm 
Hammersmith and Fulham Archives and Local History Centre, London

1874 Walter Greaves "Old Battersea Bridge" 
oil on canvas 58.4 x 76.2 cm 
Tate, London

1874 Walter Greaves "Whistler on the Thames" 
oil on canvas 88.3 x 71.5 cm 
Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull, UK

1875 Henry Dawson "The New Houses of Parliament and the Thames" 
oil on canvas 78 x 123.5 cm 
National Trust, Tyntesfield, UK