The Subject

Mud flats and shellfish pickers might not seem immediately obvious subjects for beautiful art, but Patty Townsend Johnson was part of a tradition which reached its heights in Monet's views of London shrouded in fog, and Whistler's views of rotting bridges and humble boats silhouetted against the blue of dusk.

As to what location is depicted here, a few years ago a work by her, 'Dutch Fisher Folk Attending to the Catch', and dating to 1894, appeared in an art sale, so the scene may perhaps be Holland rather than, say, Morecombe Bay.

In this work what the artist does do is to bring out how in the violet moments of twilight, sometimes colours which might at other times not seem so bright achieve then a jewel-like intensity.

Another theme in this work besides colour is the working life of the mass of people. Inspired by earlier French artists such as Millet, British artists George Clausen documented farm work, and Hubert von Herkomer such hard hitting subjects as 'Hard Times' and 'The Strike', but always somehow under a veil of either mist or golden romantic lighting. This watercolour somehow combines both of these lighting effects.

The Artist

Patty Townsend was born in 1845 or 1846 and by 1877 had learned to become a fine watercolourist. Shortly after this date she was working to prepare views for reproduction by engraving. Following in the footsteps of many local artists, she worked on a series including Butcher Row, Whitefriars Gate, Much Park Street, and Remains of the Abbey, Priory Row, all in Coventry, at this time.

By 1892 he had married into a family of wealthy Nuneaton industrialists, and from then lived at Attleborough Hall, Nuneaton, about 8 miles from Coventry. She retained her maiden surname, adding her husband's surname of Johnson. In 1892 she painted this work, and exhibited it with the Society of Lady Artists in London.

In January 1905 she presented this work to the people of Coventry, and it was hung up then in the old Gulson Public Library in this city. Fortunately it was moved out of there with other of the city's art in 1939, as the libary was shortly afterwards hit in the blitz.

Works by the artist

Under the name at first of Patty Townsend and then of Patty Townsend Johnson, the artist exhibited at a number of well-known venues, including the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the New Watercolour Society, The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, the Institute of Oil Painters, the Dudley Gallery and Suffolk Street, all in London. She even exhibited on one occasion with the prestigious Grosvenor Gallery, the public face of the Aesthetic Movement and characterised by Gilbert and Sullivan as 'greenery-yallery' - the colours of Aesthetic Movement works being suble and often of these hues.

Between 1881 and 1904 the Royal Academy showed works by her including 'An Old Footbridge', 'The Children's Hour' and 'When Work Begins'.

Other scenes she has painted include Hartshill, in 1882, and a cottage at Newdigate in Surrey in 1896.

Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery hold the largest collection of her works.

She illustrated at least two books, 'Punch and Judy and some of their Friends' 1887, and 'George Eliot, Her Early Home', 1893.