This preparatory study for the painting
Flask Walk, Hampstead, on Coronation Day (Tate
N05276) is executed in pencil, ink and watercolour on wove paper. The paper is machine-made, medium weight and of good quality. Three of the edges seem to have been unevenly cut and the right-hand edge appears to have been torn, indicating perhaps that the sheet was a page removed from a sketchbook. There are pinholes along all the edges, especially numerous on the left and the top, which were made by drawing pins probably used to secure the paper to a drawing board.
The image is drawn within a rectangle, measuring 305 x 254 mm, positioned at the centre of the sheet. The drawing is executed within this frame, initially in graphite, using a soft sharp pencil to create fine lines and shading and to describe detail, such as the shop sign. Watercolour is applied over the graphite and confined to the figures and flags, which are boldly coloured in pigment-rich paint, which covers the drawing beneath. A black-ink grid has been applied over the extent of the drawing; where these lines traverse areas of more opaque colour, the greasy ink was repelled by the watercolour. The grid measures 12.5 mm
2 and each line is numbered from 1 to 19 along the horizontal edge and 1 to 23 along the vertical. Ginner was well known for his tendency to square-up almost all of his preparatory drawings with heavily scored ink lines. Earlier in his career, his artist friends had presented him with architects’ paper, already squared, to pin over the next drawing, but he refused to use it and he continued to square-up his drawings.
1
Tomoko Kawamura and Sarah Morgan
June 2005
Notes
How to cite
Tomoko Kawamura and Sarah Morgan, 'Technique and Condition', June 2005, in David Fraser Jenkins, ‘Study for ‘Flask Walk, Hampstead, on Coronation Day’ 1937 by Charles Ginner’, catalogue entry, May 2005, in Helena Bonett, Ysanne Holt, Jennifer Mundy (eds.), The Camden Town Group in Context, Tate Research Publication, May 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/charles-ginner-study-for-flask-walk-hampstead-on-coronation-day-r1139017, accessed 06 December 2024.