Webb (J.) Lock on the Thames 1885 {1904} NGV [PA]

Webb, James (1825-95; English)
Lock on the Thames 1885
Oil on canvas, 139.5 x 122.6 cm
Bequest of Alfred Felton, 1904
National Gallery of Victoria (140-2)

This canvas was chosen by Bernard Hall from Felton’s collection, along with Webb (J.) Gloucester {1904} NGV [PA].

This particular work has the distinct air of a pastiche of/tribute to John Constable, whose autograph works only began to enter the Melbourne collection some years later: compare in particular Constable’s Study of a boat passing a lock, c.1823-26 (Felton Bequest, 1951).

Refs.

AR 1904, p.26; NGV 1905, p.90 (III.MacArthur Gallery, no.30) 

For the NGV’s Constables, see Hoff (1995), pp.60ff., and the gallery’s online catalogue