drawing;
print study
- Museum number
- 1963,1214.8
- Description
-
Putney Bridge with the boat race; to right a crowd of onlookers, some leaning over wooden rails, to left numerous boats on the river below spanned by the bridge, with buildings and trees in the background. 1870
Pen and brown ink, with grey and brown wash and graphite, touched with bodycolour
- Production date
- 1870
- Dimensions
-
Height: 407 millimetres
-
Width: 278 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Label text (added 2003): In this depiction of the annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race the exaggerated height of the bridge emphasizes the distance between the proletarian spectators grouped on it and the privileged ones on the boats below. This kind of representation supports the perception of the city as reflected in French literature on London during the period. Théophile Gautier had stressed for example 'the bottomless gulf between misery and luxury which is London' (quoted in John Coolidge, Gustave Doré's London, Louisville, 1994).
The drawing served at the model for a wood-engraving published in 'London: A Pilgrimage' (London; Grant & Co, 1872), opposite p.60.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1964 BM, 'Recent Acquisitions', no.63
1987 Aug-Oct, London, Barbican, Image of London, no.192
1996, BM, 'French Drawings from the British Museum' (no cat.)
2014 Feb -May, Musée d'Orsay, Gustav Dore (1832-1883) Master of Imagination
2014 Jun-Sep, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Gustav Dore (1832-1883) Master of Imagination
- Acquisition date
- 1963
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1963,1214.8