Joseph Walter (BRITISH 1783-1856), A VIEW OF PILL ON THE AVON WITH THE BRISTOL CHANNEL AND THE WELSH

Lot description

JOSEPH WALTER (BRITISH 1783-1856)A VIEW OF PILL ON THE AVON WITH THE BRISTOL CHANNEL AND THE WELSH HILLS IN THE DISTANCEOil on canvasSigned and dated `1838' (lower left)55 x 95cm (21½ x 37¼ in.)Provenance:Frost and Reed, London, circa 1950. Mrs Audrey Stock, by 1984. Exhibited:City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Marine Artists of Bristol, Nicholas Pocock and Joseph Walter, 1982, no.53) illustrated p.84, lent from a private collection. Pill, at Avonmouth, was the home of most of the channel pilots and of the towboat men. When the first resident steam tug, Fury, appeared in 1836, the towboat men of Pill boarded her at night and set her adrift, but it was a hopeless protest and the population of Pill was initially to decline over the next decades. Joseph Walter's inclusion of the merchant vessel accompanied by two steam tugs in the middle distance deliberately documents these changes.