Signed lower left: Blackheath/T.
Lindsay 1847
Watercolour over pencil heightened with
touches of bodycolour
193 x 266 mm., 7 ½ x 10 ½ in.
Provenance
Private
Collection. UK
The present watercolour shows a view across Blackheath looking
south towards Eliot Vale, with Eliot House at the far right and the tower of St
Margaret’s, Lee visible. The carriage in the distance above the quarry is on
Hare and Billet Road, which runs across part of the Heath. St Margaret’s Church
was built between 1839 – 41 in the gothic revivalist style by John Brown of
Norwich, to replace the ruined medieval church,
part of whose tower still stands in the graveyard. It would not however, have been possible to have seen the tower as fully
from the position Lindsay has adopted, suggesting that this work was produced
in the studio, based on on-the-spot studies, or perhaps Lindsay merged a couple
of different viewpoints in order to create a more pleasing image.
Blackheath
was long exploited for its rich seams of gravel and chalk and numerous gravel
and chalk pits and even underground mines were dotted over the heath. The
present watercolour illustrates the scale of some of these quarries, the horse
and cart at the bottom is dominated by its surroundings. Many of the old
quarries were only filled in following World War II, when sites were needed to
dispose of the bomb rubble.
We
are grateful to Dr Pieter van der Merwe for his help with cataloguing this
watercolour.
Inscribed upper centre: All these light Clouds are floating underneath a higher of cold
gray,/mottled over a blue tint of sky/very like this paper, but very/little of
which is/seen/23d July 1858/Cusop Ch. yard and lower left: Cusop Churchyard and verso: By Thos Lindsay
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour
on blue-green paper
19 by 30.4 cm., 7 ½ by 12 in.
Signed lower left: T. Lindsay and signed and inscribed verso: Coast of Kent - nr Margate/T. Lindsay 1858
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour
and scratching out
21.5 by 32.1 cm., 8 ½ by 12 ½ in.
Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Christie's, 4th February 1974, lot
7;
By descent until 2018