Thursday, May 29, 2014

Whistler's Wapping

 
The picture posted earlier was of the Angel pub, which is where Captain Cook recruited for his voyages around the world and, in particular, Whistler painted the picture above.

Called Wapping (described further here), its amazing to compare what has changed and what remains the same.

The pub and Thames are pretty much as they were in 1860 but the merchant shipping has gone, completely.

It really is remarkable to look back at London's long maritime history, of the docks, shipyards, thousands of boats, so thick and busy that Brunel built his famous Thames Tunnel, hundreds of years of tradition, now almost all gone.

But London and its river remains.

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3 comments:

  1. Towpath Tanya3:34 pm


    And his mum said he'd come to nothing, wasting all his time at the pub.

    Surprised he bothered with that painting of her at all.

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  2. Buff Staysail8:40 am

    I'm told his mum heard about him and that young red headed lady in the picture JP posted and gave him a right tongue lashing (mums eh? haven't we all been there!)

    Net result: mum gets herself a nice painting and said young lady, Joana Hifferman, heads to Paris and models for Coubet (his "Sleep" is a wake up call if you ask Buff).

    Or at least that's how Buff remembers it.

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  3. Towpath Tanya3:54 pm



    Rumors are Buff's quite the Courbet fan.

    Don't know the origin, though.

    ReplyDelete