Can anyone identify the location?

Hydrozoan

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Wivenhoe church is set back and has a characteristic 'crown' on the tower, and I don't think there has been a house with a 'Dutch' facade. The painting of the tree on the left and the weird perspective of the 'Dutch' house leads me to think that this was not a recognised artist and that there is a lot of fancy involved.

By " 'Dutch' house " do you mean the stepped gable (?) building at centre right? I thought it might be a grain warehouse, having convinced myself that I could see a loading hoist sticking out - but my eyesight is not what it was!
 

Capt Popeye

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Having read all the postings so far posted , my guess is that its probably basically view of the Barges but the backgrounds are a composite drawn from both the artists impressionistic thoughts plus actual local East Coast images compressed and arranged in the painting to balance and enforce the main subject , the Barges

Guess that if the Artist could be identified by a large bit , the images might afford authenticity of both Composition and locality

I like the painting of 'where ever'
 

Capt Popeye

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Guess one could actually contact some London Museum the Art Gallery departments and ask for An Artists assesment ; plus authentict or not ? understand that some Art Galleries actually perform such events regularly

Might be a early taster painting by a well know artist trying out the subject matter and paints /colours ?
 

WoodyP

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In this era there were many accomplished amateurs. My Grandmother painted some lovely watercolours, also carvings, some of which we have. Worthless financially but priceless as a family archive.
 

tillergirl

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At least we know Nigel's book front is Maldon.

As to the argument about a amalgam of various ideas, why would an artist think of adding industrial chimneys - unless they were actually where it is?
 

Capt Popeye

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At least we know Nigel's book front is Maldon.

As to the argument about a amalgam of various ideas, why would an artist think of adding industrial chimneys - unless they were actually where it is?

Maybe it was the Artists choice to add the background scenes like trees and buildings to add atmosphere ? i understand it was and maybe still is fashionable as an art form ; a picture embodying images from around the localty etc ?

As to adding Industrial elements into the painting ; (chimleys ?) were not them Sailing Barges industrial in their day , involved in industry , farming and mills, plus clay , cement etc etc surely all well entrenched in one form of Industry or another ?

These days we can look back at those Thames Sailing Barges with nostalger as items of beauty but there origin is surely as Work Hores in the Water borne Haulage systems ?
 

johnalison

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By " 'Dutch' house " do you mean the stepped gable (?) building at centre right? I thought it might be a grain warehouse, having convinced myself that I could see a loading hoist sticking out - but my eyesight is not what it was!
Yes, that’s the word. There is a house on the front in Wivenhoe called the Granary, now modernised, but the church would then appear to its right.
 

Tomahawk

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...
As to adding Industrial elements into the painting ; (chimleys ?) were not them Sailing Barges industrial in their day , involved in industry , farming and mills, plus clay , cement etc etc surely all well entrenched in one form of Industry or another ?

These days we can look back at those Thames Sailing Barges with nostalger as items of beauty but there origin is surely as Work Hores in the Water borne Haulage systems ?

Ain’t that the truth of it. We romanticise barges and smacks as some sort of bucolic idyl. The truth is, it was a bloody hard and short life. No LSA, no weather forecasts, very basic navigation amongst shifting sandbanks. It was an incredible amount of effort to haul goods throughout the year without any modern comforts like heating and insulation.
 

AntarcticPilot

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Ain’t that the truth of it. We romanticise barges and smacks as some sort of bucolic idyl. The truth is, it was a bloody hard and short life. No LSA, no weather forecasts, very basic navigation amongst shifting sandbanks. It was an incredible amount of effort to haul goods throughout the year without any modern comforts like heating and insulation.
Just as we romanticize the countryside. There is NO natural countryside in England, and precious little in Scotland and Wales. Our Bronze-Age ancestors cut down the forests using their shiny new axes, and things developed from there. The remnants of the forests went to build Nelson's Navy; barring one or two trees, the forests remaining are either second-growth or plantations! The mediaeval forests were very thoroughly managed either to provide good hunting ground or to produce wood for construction or fuel. If you live in East Anglia, you are very quickly aware that you live in the middle of a vast food-producing machine. Don't get me wrong - I think conservation is, in general, a Good Thing, but we need to be quite hard-headed about WHAT we are preserving. The natural state of the UK is a temperate rain-forest, such as that in Tasmania or New Zealand.
 

Capt Popeye

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Ain’t that the truth of it. We romanticise barges and smacks as some sort of bucolic idyl. The truth is, it was a bloody hard and short life. No LSA, no weather forecasts, very basic navigation amongst shifting sandbanks. It was an incredible amount of effort to haul goods throughout the year without any modern comforts like heating and insulation.

Maybe then, the Artist was combining the Manufacturing and Commercial aspects of the day , depicting the Barge life and its part in the Commercial Industrial aspects ? maybe ??

Would suggest that one of the better Art Gallerys might recognise the Artists style and technique plus Brush Strokes in order to narrow the date and poss artist etc ?
 

Jan Harber

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The watercolour could well be based on New Cut, Ipswich. The width is about right, the trees are similar . . . and there is a chimney!
View attachment 124344
I too am beginning to favour New Cut Ipswich because the laden lighter barge (with the smoking chimney) in the foreground looks like those used by Packards, to be towed upstream under Stoke Bridge to the fertilizer factory up the Gipping at Bramford. Still doesn't fit in with the church though... maybe that is artist's licence.
 

Tomahawk

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Just as we romanticize the countryside. There is NO natural countryside in England, and precious little in Scotland and Wales. Our Bronze-Age ancestors cut down the forests using their shiny new axes, and things developed from there. The remnants of the forests went to build Nelson's Navy; barring one or two trees, the forests remaining are either second-growth or plantations! The mediaeval forests were very thoroughly managed either to provide good hunting ground or to produce wood for construction or fuel. If you live in East Anglia, you are very quickly aware that you live in the middle of a vast food-producing machine. Don't get me wrong - I think conservation is, in general, a Good Thing, but we need to be quite hard-headed about WHAT we are preserving. The natural state of the UK is a temperate rain-forest, such as that in Tasmania or New Zealand.

I don't half get wrong when I say exactly the same. One fine afternoon I was in a planning team meeting for the entire planning department at Maldon DC. The then head of planing was waxing stupid about the "high quality natural environment". I suspect my look of disgiust at what he was bullshitting on about didn't go down well with the lackeys.

If there is a villain of the piece today, I consider it is the conspiracy of the privileged rural elite lead by Beatrix Potter. She used her cash from writing children's stories to buy up farms in what later became the "Lake District National Park in order to run them as a hobby. People have become divorced from the land and no longer understand how it is managed to feed us.
 

Aquaboy

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I think its looking up the New Cut (ipswich) The warehouses are behind the wall in the wet dock. The church is St Peters by the waterfront obscured now by the grain silos/flats. The barges have just left St Peters quay by Stoke bridge and are about to pass the original entrance to the wet dock. The Gipping barge is moored to the old lock staging in the foreground awaiting enough water to start up to Stowmarket
A little further down from here........new cut.PNG
 
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Leighb

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I think its looking up the New Cut (ipswich) The warehouses are behind the wall in the wet dock. The church is St Peters by the waterfront obscured now by the grain silos/flats. The barges have just left St Peters quay by Stoke bridge and are about to pass the original entrance to the wet dock. The Gipping barge is moored to the old lock staging in the foreground awaiting enough water to start up to Stowmarket
A little further down from here........View attachment 124467
That is certainly an interesting interpretation. I shall have to try and find some old pictures of that area of Ipswich to see if I can find any match to the Dutch gabled building.
 
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