College Barges on the Isis, Oxford
1940
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1940
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
College Barges on the Isis, Oxford is a 1940 watercolor by Walter Bayes, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This sketch shows a river scene with two women by the water. One wears a light dress, the other a darker one. Behind them, a wooden barge floats with two men sitting on top. Trees with yellow leaves line the bank. A dog stands near the women, and the whole scene looks loose and quick. The artist used soft colors and fast brushstrokes. The barge and buildings have a rough, sketchy look—like they were drawn fast. Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more works like this.
A watercolour by Walter Bayes from 1940 depicts a college barge moored on the River Isis in Oxford, with two young women in summer dresses approaching the gangway. The work was created as part of the "Recording Britain" project, a wartime initiative led by Sir Kenneth Clark to document the British landscape and national identity during the Second World War. Funded by the Pilgrim Trust, the scheme employed artists to record scenes such as rivers, rural landscapes, and historic buildings, aiming to preserve a record of places threatened by war or rapid change. The collection includes over 1,500…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Walter John Bayes was an English painter and illustrator who was a founder member of both the Camden Town Group and the London Group and also a renowned art teacher and critic.
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