Old Battersea Bridge

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Views of Old Battersea Bridge were also painted by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and J. M. W. Turner. Greaves made numerous drawings and paintings of this London landmark throughout his career, having grown up in its vicinity. Examples include an etching of ‘Old Battersea Bridge and the South Bank of the Thames’ (1860) at the Victoria and Albert Museum; a pencil and watercolour view sold through Christie’s, London, in 2005; an oil painting of ‘Old Battersea Bridge’ (1874) in the Tate collection and another oil ‘Nocture’ (1885), featuring the bridge, which sold through the dealer Offer Waterman Ltd, London, in 2008.

Walter Greaves was born in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea; the son of a boat builder and waterman. He and his brother Henry first met Whistler in 1863. In 1876, four of Walter Greaves’ works were shown at the Royal Aquarium. Greaves and Whistler parted company in 1888, after which Greaves’s career faltered but he received some recognition from 1911, when he had a solo exhibition at the London Gallery. In 1922 his painting ‘Hammersmith Bridge’ was purchased for the Tate and in the same year he had a further exhibition at the London Gallery. Greaves was elected an honorary member of the Chelsea Arts Club in 1921. He died in West London Hospital, Hammersmith, aged 84.

Places

England, River Thames, London, Battersea Bridge, Battersea, Chelsea

Subjects

topography, genre, townscape/cityscape, river, man, advertising, signage, bridge (urban), barge/canal boat

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), pencil, ink, pen and ink drawing, pencil drawing

Artist

Walter Greaves (1846 - 1930)

Title

Old Battersea Bridge

Date

1870

Medium

Pen and ink and pencil, on paper

Dimensions

height: 27.00 cm, width: 43.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Roland, Browse & Delbanco, February 1976

Inscription

br: W. Greaves / 70

GAC number

12224