1804
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Houses in Little Greenwich, Aldersgate Stree is a 1804 watercolor by Cornelius Varley, a British Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a narrow alley lined with old wooden houses. The buildings lean in close, their thatched roofs and small windows packed together. A woman in a blue dress is bent over, filling a bucket from a stream running down the street. In the background, another person stands on a balcony, and laundry hangs from lines between the houses. The artist paid close attention to how light hits the rough surfaces of the wood and stone. The shadows make the alley feel cozy but messy, like a real working neighborhood. Next, check out the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more of this painting up close.
A watercolour by Cornelius Varley from 1804 shows houses in Little Greenwich along Aldersgate Street, with the artist’s signature placed on the reverse.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Cornelius Varley, FRSA (21 November 1781 – 2 October 1873) was a British painter, mostly in watercolour, printmaker and optical instrument-maker. He invented the graphic telescope and the graphic microscope.
See the richer artist page
