The Camden Town Group in Context

Purchased from the artist in 1916 by Sir Louis Fergusson (1878–1962), from whom bought in 1956 by Leger Galleries, London, from whom bought by Tate Gallery 1957.

The preparatory study consists of a signed black ink and graphite drawing with red ink grid executed on off-white laid paper of good quality. Harold Gilman’s handwritten notes in graphite and ink are inscribed on the verso, describing relationships of space and light:

The paper support was probably torn from a sketchbook; the bottom of the sheet has a deckle edge and the left edge, which would correspond to the bound edge, has been torn. The top and right edges have both been folded and then cut outside of the fold to create a slightly larger sheet size. Pin holes in the corners relate to the original and revised dimension of the sheet and indicate that it was pinned to a board when the drawing was executed or the design was transferred. The red ink grid was first squared up to the bottom and left edges and the top and right edges folded. Gilman then applied a first black ink drawing over the red grid. The paper was unfolded and the red ink grid extended to add three rows to the vertical length and one row to the horizontal length. At this point, the grid measured approximately 6 x 6 mm and is numbered along on all four sides, running 1–51 along the horizontals and 1–43 along the verticals, as they were squared-up. Gilman signed the work in blue ink, which has subsequently faded. Further drawing in black ink was then applied and this was followed by drawing, annotation and re-enforcement of the signature in graphite. There is no trace of graphite drawing beneath the red grid. All that is now visible was applied at the last stage of drawing.

The composition of this drawing is mostly the same as that of the finished oil (Tate N04373, fig.1). The squaring-up suggests that Harold Gilman worked from it directly, but there are certain differences, including the arrangement of the figures in the foreground, and the absence in the drawing of the pair of figures on the extreme right of the painting. The study is a little less than half the size of the painting and bears a numbered grid in red ink over it for transfer. Like the Study for ‘Canal Bridge, Flekkefjord’ (Tate T00026), it bears numerous colour notes. It is interesting to compare it with Muirhead Bone’s Study for ‘The Great Gantry, Charing Cross Station’ 1906 (Tate N02300, fig.2).

The first owner of this drawing was Sir Louis Fergusson (1878–1962), who recalled in a letter to the Tate Gallery dated 1 June 1957:

Fergusson was a committed patron of the Camden Town Group, who also owned Spencer Gore’s Inez and Taki (see Tate N05859 for an account of Fergusson’s career). With Wyndham Lewis, Fergusson wrote Harold Gilman: An Appreciation, which appeared after Gilman’s death in 1919. ‘Gore introduced me to Gilman at 19 Fitzroy Street in December 1908’, Fergusson recalled, ‘on one of those delightful Saturday afternoons when you were free to feast your eyes on relay after relay of what were mostly little pictures for little patrons.’2