Canal Culture
by Malcolm Luty

Do your waterway postcard interests extend to fine art? They should, because great painters like Constable, Cotman, Monet and Turner all painted waterways.

Everyone know Constable's Haywain, but he painted many other canvases of the Stour Valley around Flatford which show barges, boathouses, locks and dry docks. In my experience the many cards of his paintings come alive when you visit the area and see the real things.

Medici card (PC1797) of a Turner painting: Grand Junction Canal at Southall Mill.

It was the V&A Museum card of Cotman's Chirk Aqueduct pinned up in a Melbury House office years ago which first aroused my interest in waterway fine art. Much more recently I discovered a Medici card of a Turner painting Grand Junction Canal at Southall Mill, depicting lock 91 and 92 at the top of the Hanwell Flight. That surprise led me to look out for cards of waterway subjects by famous artists and I haven't been disappointed.

Dealing first with canals, I've found another Turner, Chichester Canal, ©1828, reproduced by the Tate Gallery. And three cards of John Nash paintings on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Bath. Soho Publishing's S111 and S149 depict The Lock Gates, Bath and Canal, Bath while English Life's 2002C is a black and white reproduction of Canal Bridge, Sydney Gardens, Bath. Less famous is John Skinner Prout's watercolour featuring the Shropshire Union Canal and narrowboat in Chester, published by the Grosvenor Museum as CP5.

Soho Publishing's S111 depicts: The Lock Gates, Bath and Canal, Bath

Broadening the scope to include rivers, there's almost no limit to what's available. The Thames alone attracted Canaletto, Constable, Kokoschka, Monet, Sisley, Spencer, Tissot, Turner and Whistle, amoung others, whose paintings are all available as postcards.

Other rivers attracted lesser names. I have cards of the Bath Avon by Sickert; Fossdyke & Witham by Lowry and Cuppleditch; Ouse by Blacklock and Trent by Arnesby Brown and de Wint.

These examples only touch on the range of cards which must be available. Is someone in the Circle an authority on waterway fine art cards? I for one would love to know more.