The Camden Town Group in Context

Walter Taylor (1860–1943), probably bought at the 1915 London Group exhibition; bought for £50 at French Gallery, London, 1922 by the Very Reverend Eric Milner White (1884–1963), by whom presented to Tate Gallery 1927.

Leeds Market is painted on fine plain-weave linen that appears to have been prepared in the same way as Gilman’s other works in the Tate collection (see also Tate T00096). All four edges are marked with lines evenly spaced at half-inch intervals in a fluid red medium. This relates directly to the numbered red ink grid on Gilman’s pen and ink preparatory drawing (Tate T00143). Microscopic traces of red ink are detectable in the interstices formed by high impasto, confirming that Gilman applied a continuous red ink grid to transfer the drawing onto the primed canvas. Initial drawing was probably in the dry black graphic medium, which is visible at the unpainted edges of the forms. The composition of the painting follows the drawing closely, with few changes. There is no evidence of reworking.

The paint film is composed of opaque blocks of colour applied within the outlines of the drawing, leaving white primer exposed at the edges of the shapes. Colour is overlaid with colour from a loaded brush with minimum intermixing. The graphite annotations on the study (Tate T00143) recording colour values appear to have been adhered to, and modulation of hue and tone within the blocks of colour is limited. The consistency of the paint was a critical part of the application. Through varying the medium content, Gilman could control flow and work within the boundaries of the drawn shapes. Marked variations in surface gloss (the painting is unvarnished), suggest that Gilman was still experimenting with his paint. In some areas, the colour has ‘sunk’, where fresh paint has been applied onto touch-dry paint and medium from the layer above has been absorbed into the layer beneath. Gilman described the careful consideration that he gave to the properties of his paint in response to Walter Sickert’s infamous criticism of his own and Ginner’s use of ‘thick paint’: ‘I am not acquainted with any man who thinks there is any merit in thick paint for the sake of thick paint ... It is, in any case, a technical detail, and depends on the questions of brilliance, permanence, covering power, deliberateness of workmanship, etc.’1

The inspiration for this work may have come from a visit Harold Gilman made to the art critic and writer Frank Rutter, who became Director of Leeds City Art Gallery in 1912. Rutter was an enthusiastic admirer and reviewer of Gilman’s work, and the two became friends. Gilman shows the eastern extension of the City Market at Leeds, a section that was erected between 1897 and 1901. His viewpoint looks east towards the windows and gable.

When Gilman made the picture, Leeds Market was extremely large and impressive. One of the biggest purpose-built markets in the country, it was expanded and developed a number of times. The land between Vicar Lane and Kirkgate in Leeds had been used as a marketplace for livestock, fruit and vegetables since 1822. The area was paved over in 1827, extended in 1846, and between 1853 and 1857 half its area was covered by a large cast iron and glass market hall, perhaps inspired by the example of the Crystal Palace. Further extensions were made to the eastern side of the market hall in 1875 and 1888, including wholesale fish and meat markets and an abattoir, but at the turn of the century it was decided to construct a much larger structure altogether. An architectural competition was held by the City Council, who adopted the plans put forward by Messrs Leeming & Leeming, with construction taking place between 1901 and 1904. Built from Yorkshire stone in a predominantly Flemish style, the building was enriched by a series of domes, pointed roofs and a central steeple. The central market hall was filled with cast-iron stalls and a dragon ornamented perimeter walkway, above which, supported by a series of cast-iron Corinthian columns, was a large glass roof (fig.1). Gilman shows a spot adjacent to the central hall. Leeds market was further expanded in the 1940s and 1950s, but in 1975 it was seriously damaged by a fire in which two-thirds of the market was destroyed. It is currently being restored.1

In an unsigned review of the 1915 London Group exhibition in the Burlington Magazine, Walter Sickert, by this time mostly out of sympathy with Gilman’s work, wrote perhaps somewhat sardonically:

Rutter perceptively drew attention to the similarity of Leeds Market to Charles Ginner’s work (fig.2):

Certainly this type of ‘working life’ subject was more typical of Ginner, and it is perhaps significant that the visit Gilman made to Leeds which inspired this picture was made in the company of Ginner. So, too, is the use of architectural geometry to lend structure to the composition. But another source of inspiration may have been the large and elaborate drawing of The Great Gantry, Charing Cross Station (fig.3) by Muirhead Bone, exhibited at the New English Art Club exhibition in November–December 1906 (10). Campbell Dodgson illustrated the subsequent print in Etchings and Dry Points by Muirhead Bone (1909).4 There is a great deal of resonance between Bone’s detailed rendering of the complex scheme of girders at Charing Cross and Gilman’s picture of Leeds Market, and this must raise the possibility that he had seen it. A study for Bone’s drawing entered the Tate collection in 1908 (Tate N02300). There is also a strong resemblance to the station canopy of Claude Monet’s Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare St Lazare 1877 (Art Institute of Chicago). This was with the French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in 1911, when it could have been seen by Gilman when he visited Paris with Ginner.

The Very Rev. Eric Milner White CBE DSO, who presented this work to the Tate Gallery, was Dean of York Minster from 1941 until his death. In addition to slightly earlier British works, he collected pictures by Gilman, Sickert, Spencer Gore, Gwen John, Philip Wilson Steer, Paul Maitland and Walter Greaves, many of which were given to York City Art Gallery. Milner White amassed an important collection of studio pottery, which was also given to York City Art Gallery.5