Kilburn
Kilburn
1150
In 'Little Dorrit', published as a serial between 1855 and 1857, Charles Dickens wrote that the Thames was "a deadly sewer ... in the place of a fine, fresh river". From June to August 1858, hot weather, exacerbating the smell of untreated waste and effluent, caused 'The Great Stink' in central London. As well as eventually prompting a proposal from Joseph Bazalgette to build a new system of sewers, the event encouraged Londoners to seek country air around the city and the acceleration of the development of suburbia.
Probably in the autumn of that year George Adolphus Storey painted this beautifully observed and precisely painted watercolour of Kilburn. The work clearly shows the influence on the young artist of the Pre-Raphaelites, who were all the rage at the time.
Storey’s view, perhaps made from an upper-floor window at the back of a house in Kensal Green, appears to show the scene looking north in sunshine and shade, with rain clouds on the horizon. Here we see mid-19th-century North London, criss-crossed by recently built railway embankments, but still for the moment untouched by the growing suburbs.
Dimensions:
1858
Watercolour over graphite
Monogrammed and dated
With Folio Fine Art 1969
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