Historic waterways pictures

[Derek R.]

 

A fast Packet boat towed by two horses with postillion. The third horse (standing) looks to have a man beside it.

[alan_fincher]

On 16/02/2019 at 17:45, Derek R. said:

 

A fast Packet boat towed by two horses with postillion. The third horse (standing) looks to have a man beside it.

Are thesehorses quie a long way away?

[Sea Dog]

Just now, alan_fincher said:

Are thesehorses quie a long way away?

No, it's just a very small picture...! 

 

[alan_fincher]

7 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

No, it's just a very small picture...! 

 

 

...... Cue the Father Dougal clip!......

[Sea Dog]

Just now, alan_fincher said:

 

...... Cue the Father Dougal clip!......

Ah, yer will, yer will, yer will! 

 

[magpie patrick]

On 16/02/2019 at 17:45, Derek R. said:

 

A fast Packet boat towed by two horses with postillion. The third horse (standing) looks to have a man beside it.

Agreed, the problem is that, if the location of the lock gates in the picture is to be accepted as accurate, this fast packet boat is in the entrance lock from the Solway Firth! But that doesn't make sense as Carlisle is about 8 miles away from the entrance lock, yet probably less than a mile away in the painting. 

[1st ade]

4 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

But that doesn't make sense...

Does it have to? A painting is aesthetically pleasing and (sometimes) true to life, a photograph is the opposite

 

(Although I was surprised as an engineer when we visited Monet's Garden in Paris that he designed the garden how he wanted the picture to look because he couldn't make it up...)

[Tim Lewis]

On 16/02/2019 at 12:48, Heartland said:

The Carlisle painting is another useful image, it was painted by by William Henry Nutter  and is held at the Tullie House Museum, Carlisle; and which appears to show a passenger boat being hauled by horses.

 

This collection of images has one from the British Museum showing the Packet Boat from Paddington to Uxbridge in 1801 and is perhaps more reminiscent of Indian Railways...

 

 

There are two more of the Paddington Packet:

 

https://www.watercolourworld.org/painting/paddington-canal-junction-wormwood-scrubbs-passenger-hailing-uxbridge-passage-boat-tww005515

 

 

 

https://www.watercolourworld.org/painting/john-gilpin-uxbridge-passage-boat-tww005523

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by Tim Lewis

[Ray T]

John Constable:
 

 

 

Also a wide beam!
 

Edited February 19, 2019 by Ray T

[magpie patrick]

20 hours ago, 1st ade said:

Does it have to? A painting is aesthetically pleasing and (sometimes) true to life, a photograph is the opposite

 

(Although I was surprised as an engineer when we visited Monet's Garden in Paris that he designed the garden how he wanted the picture to look because he couldn't make it up...)

Painting's are interesting - when you have a photo until fairly recently the working assumption was that the depiction was accurate. If something didn't make sense one couldn't deny it existed, one had to explain it. Paintings are slightly different, and the more one can determine how accurate they are the more one can learn. 

 

The picture of the pair of narrow locks is almost certainly a fictional location, so we can't learn much, but the artist has included bits from a  lot of different places. The high bridge in the background could be from the Stroudwater, the pair of narrow locks could be based on Hillmorton, but with single gates like Farmers Bridge, the bywash is certainly similar to Farmers Bridge, but they were never paired. 

 

Constable's pictures are so accurate that canal historians can refer to them, the detail we know about is accurate so we can conclude the rest is, to the extent we can learn about things that didn't make it to the age of photography, his skies are so realistic that meteorologists study them. although I'm unclear how an 18th century cloud differs from a 21st century cloud! If the Carlisle canal pictures are accurate we can learn things about a canal that never made it into the era of photography, but to do that one needs to compare what we do know with what's in the picture

 

So from an artistic perspective no it doesn't really matter, from an historians it does. 

 

As for Monet, I love his work, which was, I think, partly in response to photography being able to outdo a painting for realism. I do wonder though how he could design the garden if he couldn't imagine the scene... I must be missing something!

Edited February 19, 2019 by magpie patrick

[Athy]

3 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 

 

Constable's pictures are so accurate that canal historians can refer to them, the detail we know about is accurate so we can conclude the rest is,

Not a run-of-the-mill painter, then.

 

My art master when I was at school reckoned that "the camera is an idiot - it hasn't got a brain".

[magpie patrick]

10 hours ago, Athy said:

Not a run-of-the-mill painter, then.

 

Not at all, although some of his paintings are a bit Flatford or Dedham

[Athy]

5 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

Not at all, although some of his paintings are a bit Flatford or Dedham

[Slytro]

My names Mark, I worked at Grebe Canal Cruises, Pitstone Wharf for about 7 years, and grew up in Cheddington.  I've been told by people on the canals that Pitsone Wharf, was Cheddington Wharf, and the Original Pitstone Wharf had been just around the corner of the canal where theres now a boat club.

 

The opening picture would be of bridge (Bridge 126), going by the description and it does look uncannily similar. I found an image taken from a similar location.

 

 

 

I have also found this site, that seems to back up what i've been told:

https://canalplan.org.uk/place/c3sp

 

Its an interesting find!

Edited March 10, 2019 by Slytro
Removed the name "Cheddington Bridge" as thats was what I knew it as.