The Music Gallery, Tunbridge Wells
1942
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1942
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Music Gallery, Tunbridge Wells is a 1942 watercolor by Hooper, a Social Realism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a small, old-fashioned music shop with a glass display case full of sheet music and instruments. The building looks weathered, with peeling paint and a sagging awning. Outside, a tree leans over the sidewalk, and a few people sit at tables on the street. The shop’s sign reads "The Music Gallery," and the artist’s name, Hooper, is signed in the corner. The brushstrokes are loose and quick, giving it a sketchy, lively feel. Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more works like this.
A watercolour from 1942 by Hooper depicts the Music Gallery, an elevated structure with a canopy and wrought-iron balustrades, located on the eastern side of the Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells. The work was part of the "Recording Britain" project, a wartime initiative that employed artists to document British landscapes and buildings threatened by war or modernization. Funded by the Pilgrim Trust and directed by Sir Kenneth Clark, the scheme aimed to preserve a record of national identity through topographical watercolours and drawings. Overseen by the Committee for the Employment of Artists in…
Read the full account in the museum source.
This artist painted quiet streets and brick buildings in watercolor during the early 1940s.
See the richer artist page
