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Paul Sandby’s Thames pictures

Watercolour painter Paul Sandby is best known for his pictures of Windsor in George III’s reign.

The exhibition at the Royal Academy marking the 200th anniversary of his death in 1809  brings together his other Thames views.

He certainly knew the river well because his earliest drawing is of the Tower of London and he spent time teaching at Woolwich Arsenal.

In his 1765 The North Terrace, Windsor Castle the winding river can be seen below passing Clewer Church.  In another picture he then shows us the view back from “the Goswells”  on the south bank opposite The Brocas.

But Sandby did go further west upstream. The View of Oxford from Nuneham Courtney – Evening c 1760 shows Lord Harcourt’s ‘improved’ estate. The work was by ‘Capability’ Brown who was known to Sandby. Another is the morning view from the lock cottages showing two boats and the mansion on the hill. Today the lock has gone but university-owned house still makes a fine sight today. Sandby was very familiar with it for he taught drawing to Lady Elizabeth Harcourt.

One picture looks just like the mathematical bridge at Walton-on-Thames as painted by Canaletto but alas it is not. Virginia Water, again at Windsor, had a fine bridge too.

However, the star picture in his own version of Canaletto’s view east from Somerset House. The precise observation allows us to see the south bank as well as the north as it was in Georgian times.

This is an exhibition not to be missed.

Paul Sandby is at the Royal Academy of Arts from Saturday 13 March to Sunday 14 June; admission £9 (conc £8).

See page 90-92 and 164.

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Martin Karlsson’s pictures outside Tate Modern

The garden at the back of Tate Modern has gone to make way for the extension and its worksite.

However, the long hoarding round the back has just been decorated with over a hundred drawings by Swedish artist Martin Karlsson.

He includes places on the Thames Path which you may have just passed such as St Saviour’s Dock and the little St Mary Overy Dock by Southwark Cathedral.

He also has a drawing of Stephen Duncan’s Old Father Thames relief found upstream on Elm Quay.

Martin calls his show London: An Imagery after Gustav Dore’s 19th-century book of drawings. It’s worth looking round the back.

See pages 31, 34 and 40.

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Lowest tide next week

The Thames will have its lowest tide for five years on the morning of Wednesday 3 March.

Thames 21, London’s waterways charity, is organising a deep clean of the river bed. Volunteers are invited to put on old clothes and meet at the south end of Hammersmith Bridge at 11am.  The event will be over by 1.30pm.

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Pancake Race on Thames Path

A pancake race was run along a stretch of the Thames Path today.

Southwark’s Shrove Tuesday race was in Montague Close where the national trail passes the cathedral.

See page 31.

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Maidenhead improves Cliveden view towpath

News has reached me of improvements to the path between Islet Park House in Maidenhead and Cookham’s Mill Lane.

This comes from the Royal Borough of Maidenhead which has been responsible, with a Natural England grant, for widening the path and repairing the bank.

The erosion problems were mainly tackled early last year whilst the new stone surface and reduced gradient at bridges are more recent achievements.

I look forward to enjoying it shortly. Not all improvements are for the better but it is interesting that thought has been given to people with impaired mobility on this very attractive stretch with Cliveden views.

See page 100.

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Paul Nash and Wittenham Clumps

Paul Nash’s Wittenham Clumps painting is on the poster advertising the Paul Nash exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. It’s also the cover picture for the catalogue.

This star picture, called Landscape of the Vernal Equinox, has been lent by the Queen. This is because the painting was purchased by the Queen Mother who hung it at Clarence House.

It was one of Paul Nash’s last works and was painted in 1943 from far away Boar’s Hill where he used binoculors.

He attempted the view 26 times so it’s interesting to find in the exhibition an early watercolour, dated about 1913, of Wittenham Clumps.

This first picture is painted from the other side when Nash stayed with his uncle at Sinodun House on the road out of Wallingford. This is appropriate for another name for the landmark is the Sinodun Hills.

At the time he wrote about the marvellous countryside with “grey hollowed hills crowned by old trees”.

The show has other early work clearly influenced by William Blake. There are also pictures of Swanage where he spent much time.

Paul Nash: The Elements continues at Dulwich Picture Gallery daily except Mondays; admission £9; until Sunday 9 May.

See page 154.

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New lighting in Southwark’s Clink Street

Clink Street, running under Cannon Street railway line bridge, used to be a delightful Dickensian road between warehouses. It may be too light soon.

The details are on the London SE1 website.

Although this stretch of the Thames Path, just west of Southwark Cathedral, is not alongside water it was thought to be an important part of the river experience in London when the national trail was planned in the 1980s.

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Zoffany 200

This year is the 200th anniverary of Johan Zoffany’s death.

The artist, closely associated with the River Thames, died on 11 November 1810.

It seems that the bicentenary exhibition planned appropriately for Thames-side Tate Britain has been cancelled for fear that it will not attract enough people.

The Royal Academy of Arts has stepped in but cannot fit it in until 2012. Fortunately that will be the 250th anniversary of Zoffany’s arrival in England from Germany.

But this year there is publication of a book Johan Zoffany: Artist and Adventurer by Penelope Treadwell (PHP £50; paperback £30).

This seems expensive but the book is a delight and has 200 colour illustrations.

The author is an expert in her field and was fired to write the book by living in Zoffany’s riverside house at Strand-on-the-Green.

When Zoffany lived in Covent Garden he had a country home at Chiswick. Its church is depicted in The Sharp Family painted in 1779. The family are on the towpath opposite with the Thames and church seen to one side of the group.

He knew Hampton well and in 1762 had painted David Garrick and his wife taking tea by the river. He also depicted them outside the Shakespeare Temple, again with a river view.

The artist is most associated with Kew where he is buried in the churchyard on the green. His tomb looks out to the Thames and his house beyond at Strand-on-the-Green.

See pages 54, 55 & 68.

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Rotherhithe in winter

Southwark marks the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity not with a service or talk but an ecumenical walk.

It was a pleasure to join in visiting first St Hugh’s, Guy’s Chapel and La Salette Church near London Bridge. After walking along the river, and looking for the seal as we crossed St Saviour’s Dock, we were received at Dockhead Convent in Parker Row.

Here we saw its permanent exhibition about the convent, Dockhead and the sisters’ work with Florence Nightingale.

January is deep winter with no tourists so the landlord at The Angel was away. The temporary staff did a splendid job in producing fish and chips at short notice. The pub, where Whistler sketched the river from the back, is at the start of Bermondsey Wall West and a good place for lunch now that Surrey Docks Farm has closed its cafe.

We ended in Rotherhithe where Fr Mark Nicholls showed us round St Mary’s Church and pointed out that we had to climb steps because the floor is above flood level. This year is the 700th anniversary of the appointment of his predecessor, the first rector.

See page 25.

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Van Gogh and the Thames

I sometimes mention Vincent Van Gogh teaching at Isleworth although this was only for  a short time.

The Real Van Gogh exhibition opening at the Royal Academy of Arts on Saturday reminds us that the artist knew the river downstream at Lambeth and Westminster much better.

On display is a letter written in Paris in 1875 where he writes: “I crossed Westminster Bridge every morning and evening and know what it looks like when the sun’s setting behind Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, and what it’s like early in the morning, and in winter with snow and fog.”

He was recalling the previous year when he had spent twelve menths crossing the bridge daily on his way to work at an art dealer in Southampton Street off the Strand.

Van Gogh was living at first in Brixton and then in Kennington Road from where it was a short walk up Westminster Bridge Road.

In 1876 he was back in England teaching at Isleworth for a few months. In November he preached at Petersham Methodist Church which he sketched.

The exhibition’s full title is The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters so there are none of his English paintings as these do not feature in his letters. But this is a major show. I have never seen so many people at an RA press view.

There was even a media frenzy around his self portrait when members of the Van Gogh family appeared.

The souvenir shop is fun with mugs, bags, fridge magnets, trays and Oyster card wallets.

The exhibition runs daily from Saturday 23 January to Sunday 18 April.