1832, John Constable, The Opening of Waterloo Bridge (‘Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817’) -- Tate Britain (London)
From the museum label: This River Thames view is the largest painting Constable exhibited. He worked on it, and worried about it, on and off for 13 years. Constable wanted to show he could paint a grand cityscape, but it proved a challenging subject. He struggled with the composition, calling it a ‘blister’. A puzzling element is the group of industrial towers above the Lord Mayor’s barge on the right – these were not yet built when Waterloo Bridge opened. Whatever his reasons for including them, they signal the rapid industrialisation of the Thames’s south bank.
1832, John Constable, The Opening of Waterloo Bridge (‘Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817’) -- Tate Britain (London)
From the museum label: This River Thames view is the largest painting Constable exhibited. He worked on it, and worried about it, on and off for 13 years. Constable wanted to show he could paint a grand cityscape, but it proved a challenging subject. He struggled with the composition, calling it a ‘blister’. A puzzling element is the group of industrial towers above the Lord Mayor’s barge on the right – these were not yet built when Waterloo Bridge opened. Whatever his reasons for including them, they signal the rapid industrialisation of the Thames’s south bank.