Streets Ahead

By Kenneth Louis Shepherd

The author is a 'Townie' who has, throughout his life, chosen to avoid rural situations. In his interest in ART, he has felt that less attention has been paid to works related to city areas than they deserve. This book is an attempt to rectify this situation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781528911764

Kenneth Louis Shepherd

Kenneth Louis Shepherd left school, aged 14 and went into full-time employment, as did most working class people in that era. He worked mostly in retail. When aged 75 in 2008, he obtained a BA degree in the humanities.

Book preview

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About the Author

Kenneth Louis Shepherd left school, aged 14 and went into full-time employment, as did most working class people in that era. He worked mostly in retail. When aged 75 in 2008, he obtained a BA degree in the humanities.

Dedication

To my lovely wife, Pamela.

Copyright Information ©

    Kenneth Louis Shepherd (2018)

The right of Kenneth Louis Shepherd to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781788234207 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781788234214 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781788234221 (E-Book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2018)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

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Canary Wharf

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E14 5LQ

Introduction

I am a townie. I was born and bred in the town of Ilford, Essex, in the early 1930s. It was, then, an individual town, with its own character and personality. Its postal address was and still is Ilford, Essex, and it has no London Postal District number, unlike leafy, neighbouring Chingford, which is E4. On the rare occasions that the Ilford of then was mentioned in the media, it was always referred to as being in Essex. The London sprawl, which has since swallowed it up, has entirely changed it as a place to visit and to live in. It is now a part of the London Borough of Redbridge. I am not saying that this is a good thing or a bad one—it is a matter of fact.

The day war broke out—to save me from attack by the mighty force of the entire German military machine—my parents decided to evacuate me to stay with relatives in a place which is virtually at the end of the line—Burnham on Crouch, Essex. After only six weeks, this great aunt and uncle found out that I was too naughty for them to be able to deal with, and I was sent home in disgrace. I was delighted—I was, and am, a townie.

In 1943, I was again evacuated. This time, to a village in Somerset. I was there for a year and was not happy. I longed to be back in Ilford.

I am a townie. Once I had reached adulthood, I decided to move closer to Central London, while my brothers went to live in villages. My closest, previously London-based friends, now live in villages. This also applies to many of my acquaintances. Each of my nephews and nieces, now, live in rural communities.

Upon several occasions in my life, I have, for unwelcome, unavoidable reasons, found myself living in small communities. On each occasion, I have moved back to a town as soon as it was possible to do so.

I am a townie. I much prefer the city-based ‘Greasy Spoon’ to the ‘ye oldie worldie’ village tea rooms.

Whenever I have been on holiday in the UK, I have chosen to spend my time in large resorts—Torquay, Brighton, Bournemouth. Rural settings were not for me. The best holiday that I had abroad was spent in Paris. I will not bore you with the details, but when I retired, it was necessary for me to leave London and be close to my brother, for support.

I chose Clacton, Essex and I lived there for a short period. I was happy, surrounded by mostly ex-Londoners. I found it impossible to find suitable accommodation there. I reluctantly moved to a small but growing town of Maldon, Essex. We have the incredibly famous Plume Library, but as an octogenarian, I am unable to clamber up the shaky staircase to delve into its wonders. We have no cinema, no theatre and an art gallery not worth mentioning.

Once a month, we have an hour-long classical lunchtime concert. I suspect that I would have moved on to a larger community had I not met and married a lovely local lady, who would not be happy living elsewhere. Unlike most Maldonians, I visit the nearby large towns of Chelmsford and Colchester at the drop of a hat.

I am a townie. I decided to fill my years of retirement adopting as a hobby the study of art and art history. This subject has always interested me—a way to pass the time, and to prevent my brain from going rusty. I suppose that it is, therefore, not surprising that as a townie, I should take an interest in townscapes. I read and enjoyed Laura Cummings’ book ‘A Face to the World’, which covered the subject of self-portraits. This lady is the Guardian’s arts correspondent. This work, which is published by Harper Collins, is excellent, interesting and covers the subject in an agreeable and entertaining way. I sought such a work regarding townscapes and found none. And so I decided to produce one such work—I hope that you enjoy reading it.

Chapter One

Townscapes

Many years ago, it was decided that types of paintings were to be split into genres. They were history, landscapes, portraiture, still life and confusingly, a section called genre. This covered all possibilities until the 20th century, when the arrival of Modern art, and especially the abstract section of it, threw everything into a melting pot and caused for me a welcome development. However, much of the art produced since then can still be placed into these pigeonholes.

Some of these genres have since been divided into sub-sections. The self-portrait has been separated from portraiture. The term ‘landscape’ is now sometimes used to denote pastoral views; and the rest are divided between townscape and seascape. Not all artists and writers accept these divisions. The term ‘seascape’ is apparently more acceptable to the experts than is ‘townscape’. Lowry called his seascapes by that name, but his many works, which were obviously townscapes, he referred to as ‘landscapes’. People writing about his art follow his lead. I have not come across any Modern artist who gives their work the title of townscape. In contrast, many individuals have used the word seascape. This applies to Émilie Charmy, to Charles Camoin, and to Claude Monet.

Landscape paintings in any quantity did not begin to be produced until the 17th century. The country views were not considered to be of interest before that time. The man who apparently set the ball rolling in this direction was the Frenchman Claude Lorrain, generally referred to as Claude. He lived from 1600–82. Incidentally, his famous work ‘The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba’ shows her arriving in Cyprus and not leaving. Nicolas Poussin and then Constable took over where Claude left off.

Prior to this time, landscaped areas of works were usually placed to fill a space which would otherwise have remained blank. This often took the form of a backdrop. In 1515, a man named Joachim Patinir was ahead of his time in that he created landscaped works. In fact, in order to do so, he disguised them as something else to make them acceptable to his patrons. In his ‘Landscape with St Jerome’, the Church mentioned is tucked away in a corner.

There are always exceptions to every rule. One such was created in the 7th century CE, and it is the mosaic floor of the imperial palace in Constantinople. It shows a pastoral scene with natural looking men and animals, plants and even small buildings. Even earlier, in about 715 CE, in a mosque in Damascus, a column was decorated with a mosaic. This shows many buildings.

Incidentally, I do not regard a painting of an individual building as being a townscape, be it Willy Lott’s humble cottage or Westminster Abbey—a building is not a town. And generally speaking, I shall ignore villages, unless they are very large and bordering upon a town in size.

Our knowledge of the paintings which were produced in ancient times is minimal, as so little has survived. Archaeologists tell us what kind of houses they lived in and where. Scientists tell us what they ate and what diseases they encountered. We know much about the statues