Above: Louise took the practical view that she was selling a commodity, and when it was gone, it was gone. She did, however, have at least twenty of her paintings photographed - Edinburgh being one, and this view of a street market in Lower Bridge Street, Chester being another. The photographs were taken (we believe) in the early 1870s through to the 1890s, and the sea of humanity reminds us of why her work was so popular at the time - and why it is so valuable for historians today.
Although Louise Rayner painted towns across Britain and in some parts of the Continent, she is associated with Chester more than any other town - for the simple reason that she lived there for many years and taught art to others (along with her sister Margaret in latter years). Grosvenor Museum in Chester has a collection in excess of 30 different views painted by Louise and has generously given us access to many of them for reproduction here. Those at the Museum (which runs exhibitions of them at intervals) are mostly available as prints, and the pictures used here are marked Chester Collection in case you want to obtain prints. However, the following pages also include paintings held elsewhere, and prints for them will only be available if the owners make them so.
The number of prints involved would have made it tediously slow for modem users to access if the whole lot had been assembled on a single page, instead they have been divided into segments around the town centre. When we have a suitable street plan to hand, we'll add that here to assist you.
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