William Logsdail

St Martin-in-the-Fields

1888

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Not on display

Artist: William Logsdail 1859–1944
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1435 × 1181 mm
frame: 1588 × 1388 × 106 mm, 47 kg
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1888
Reference: N01621

Display caption

Logsdail painted this picture from a vehicle stationed for weeks at the kerb-side in Trafalgar Square, his feet covered with straw to protect them from the cold. It is the most famous of his series of London scenes. The view highlights the plight of child street sellers, and would also have reminded contemporary audiences of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ riots which had taken place in Trafalgar Square a few months before. During the demonstration thousands of people, demanding the right to free speech, were brutally attacked by armed police and troops.

Gallery label, November 2016

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Catalogue entry

N01621 ST MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS 1888

Inscr. ‘William Logsdail 88’ b.r.
Canvas, 56 1/4×46 1/2 (143×118).
Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1888.
Exh: R.A., 1888 (548).
Lit: E. T. Cook, A Popular Handbook to the Tate Gallery, 1898, p.234.
Repr: Sir Edward J. Poynter, The National Gallery, III, 1900, p.175; Tate Gallery, Illustrated Catalogue, 1912, p.65.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I