By the tow-path, opposite Thames-Bank House, Sunbury

Catalogue number: SO 0007
Artist: Edwin Edwards
Printer: Elizabeth Ruth Escombe (Ruth Edwards)
Date: 1861
Medium: Etching and drypoint
Dimensions [to plate mark]: 220 x 102 mm

Subject

A hedge and a rustic gate divide the foreground from a view of Thames Bank House, seen diagonally across the river and at that time surrounded by trees. Edwards' signature is integrated as a nameplate on the top rail of the gate. Thames Bank House is a well-known landmark on the River Thames at Mortlake, long associated with the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

There is a ‘familial resemblance’ between this print and Edwards' Willow (SO 0005) which aligns them to wider developments in contemporary British visual culture. The formalised representation of foliage, the nostalgia for the pre-industrial Thames-side landscape and attention to the ‘vernacular' suggested by the split-rail fence and gate all find their equivalent in the contemporary investigations of the William Morris circle.

Annotated in pencil on the reverese: ‘ 'By the Towpath’ opposite the Thames Bank House Sunbury 1861 - Edwin Edwards'

Printing

Printed by Ruth Edwards, c.1889. It appears that Ruth Edwards undertook the printing of the majority of her partner's work both during his lifetime and subsequently. In the late 1880s she prepared an unknown number of posthumous portfolios of Edwin Edwards early work, using plates that mostly dated from the 1860s. These impressions were printed on fine Japanese paper, laid paper or Chine Collé, and mounted singly on sheets of heavy off-white card measuring 456 x 367 mm.

History

Purchased at auction in a folio of seventeen etchings by Edwards, at Roseberys, London 17th June 2016. The bottom left hand portion of the sheet is currently detached due the edge of the plate perforating the paper. Conservation required.

References

Victoria & Albert Museum 1720.1952:

“This etching was probably made from the study of the same subject on p.33 of the sketch-book E.1719.1952. Another impression of this subject is in the Department of Prints and Drawings. E.1282-1889”