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Above, a superb view of Conway, showing both the castle and
Aberconwy House (right), which was originally a 14th Century merchant's house. We don't have a confirmed date for
the painting, but one of her trips took Louise into the area circa 1868, and the family still has some of the
sketches she made.
Chris Green kindly provided our main image of Conway Castle in response to this site's previously
expressed concerns about a picture drawn to our attention some time ago (see below). Chris
says he bought his version at Sotheby's in 1983 for £3200 and was very much taken with Louise's style and artistic
confidence. That same year he took his family on holiday to North Wales, intending to visit Conway to discover
whether anything existed of the original scene depicted in the painting. To his surprise and delight, as he drove
towards the castle he found himself making the approach portrayed in the picture. Furthermore Aberconwy House still
exists today in the care of the National Trust, and is the only medieval house to have survived the town's turbulent
history.
Chris approached the Trust and found that the house had undergone renovation work only a short time previously and
they had been trying to discover what the outside of the house had originally looked like. Then he showed them a
photograph of his painting... With Chris's generous permission, the painting now appears on postcards, mugs, etc.,
to assist the Trust in their valuable work.
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 What makes the top painting
especially interesting is that some time ago, Joe White sent us an image of a roughly finished but appealing painting
of Conway (here on the right). Sotheby's, the modern Rayner family, and our own untutored analysis all agreed that it
wasn't by her, despite carrying her signature (under the sitting boys on the right), and having the same detail and air
of bustle that characterised so many of her paintings. There is a possibilty that it was a study by Louise, but the
prevailing opinion is still that it was someone else copying her work to learn her technique. If it was Louise, it was
on a different visit, for the trees around the castle have changed considerably from the image Chris Green supplied,
and Aberconwy House is in a different condition, too. But we'll probably never know for certain. [Note: the image was
soft-focus and digitally sharpening it has inevitably altered its texture; we also reduced a blue cast that may have
arisen during photography.]
Below, two closeups from Joe White's picture, concentrating on Conwy House. Whether
they are by Louise or not, they still have historical value, of course.
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Left: a monochrome reproduction of Old Conway offered at auction at
£800-£1000 by Sotheby's on 14 July 1988. Many of Louise's paintings were small,
but this one is only 4.75 x 2.5 inches (12 x 6.5cm) - just slightly bigger than it is here. On this occasion it didn't
sell, though a pair of Margaret's paintings in the same auction went for 10 times the estimated price.
During the 1860s and 1870s, Louise travelled widely in search of subjects for her art, sometimes with
Margaret, sometimes with Richard, and occasionally the three
together. The Rayner family still has several sketches and other survivals from the 1868 trip, and among these is
the painting below of Conway Quay, with the castle keeping watch in the distance. Although
it isn't signed, it is believed to be by Louise, and is a gentle contrast to her busy streets.
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FLINT
Out of chronology, but in keepuing with geography, we note here that in 1882 Louise provided four illustrations for
Henry Taylor's 1883 book Historic Notices... descriptive of the Borough and County-Town of Flint.
To follow up on these, click Louise at Flint as we gave them a separate page.
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CHESTER
| By 1868 Louise was also taking commissions for work in Chester, of course, and is known to have been
living there in 1865, prior to taking up more permanent lodgings. As Chester forms a major part of her life and output,
we have separate pages on it - see Louise Rayner in Chester - but we can include a
sketch from her early days here.
The sketch shows Chester Bridge Street largely as it was when Louise first moved there in 1865. It was possibly
(Louise's Catholic Apostolic faith permitting) made on a Sunday as the shops are bereft of the blinds that characterised them
on weekdays. It also reminds us that when the family made initial sketches, they were working tools, with the words
from a subject (signs, etc.) interspersed with reminder notes of colours, textures and other features (compare
Richard Rayner's extensive Dudley notes).
Below, we show close-ups of a couple of areas.
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Far left, we see slates written on the roof, and at near left the reminder
black appears on the lower wall. The gentleman in the stovepipe hat just missed obliteration by a rain(?)
splash.
The sketch also has faint ruled lines, possibly to help Louise get proper perspective for the street.
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SHREWSBURY
Shrewsbury's old town sits on a defensible hill with the River Severn surrounding it like a bag, and with Shrewsbury Castle in the neck and within running distance. Over 2500 listed buildings still exist today, including some shown here. So Louise would have found it a fruitful location for her artistic endeavours, but so far we only know of three paintings..
Left is Fish Street, Shrewsbury, looking south-south-east. In addition to the plentiful activity we see at street level, Louise has also shown a wealth of bird life up on the roofs. In the distance, two churches vie for attention. The spire is St. Alkmond's Church, and the more prominent church is St. Julian's. We have no date for this picture, and no local history knowledge of the scene to assist us (informed comment would be welcome), but at a guess we'd say late 1860s or into the 1870s. It was auctioned by Bonhams in March 2008 with a presale estimate of £8,000-12,000.
Below is Old Houses, Shrewsbury - wonderfully decrepit if you didn't live in them. The location is unknown but the business beyond the covered wagon is Bagnalls.
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At right is Wyle Cop, Shrewsbury. From the position of St. Alkmond's Church spire we're in the upper part of Wyle Cop heading north west towards High Street - but if you're not a local, there isn't enough evidence to say exactly where. Somewhere off to the right - possibly just before Wyle Cop itself bends right in the painting - is the entrance to Fish Street, close to St. Julian's Church noted earlier.
The painting was auctioned in 2005 by Bonhams.
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LUDLOW
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About the same time that Louise was in Dudley
with Richard (1865), she also visited Ludlow. However, we don't know if it was the same year, and whether she came
in company or alone. The pictures we show here are the only ones we currently know of.
Above left, this view of Ludlow is believed to be entitled Narrows with the
Butter Cross beyond [c.1865], showing the Buttercross from its left side. The painting was offered for
sale in 2002 by Haynes of Broadway but
was at that time mistitled "Chester". On the right, Ludlow Castle Keep. We first displayed a painting very similar to this, but noted the lack of people - a rarity for Louise - and suggested the painting was more like one by her brother Richard. Well, that's exactly what it was, and it now appears on his page. This is Louise's painting of the same view - but with people! Note that the picture had a bad flash reflection towards the right side. This has been digitally repaired - but without the original for guidance, so a variation is inevitable.
Below: two more Ludlow scenes from c.1865 were provided to us courtesy of Shropshire
Museums. Both views are available from the museum as prints.
Lower left: The Buttercross from the front, showing the top of Broad Street as well - compare the clock with the picture above.
Lower right: Market Square. This view is towards the right side of the Buttercross, although the
market buildings hide it.
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Ludlow (right) is another take on the Market Square by Louise. The
picture colours are a bit calmer, and the sky a bit wilder but otherwise the general scene seems little changed.
We don't have a date for this but the tree at the left of the picture is a little smaller, so this might be just a
few years earlier than 1865.
The picture is available as a print from My Art Prints. |
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This image of The Butter Market at Ludlow was kindly supplied by Louis Taylor Fine Art Auctioneers who must have been ecstatic in December 2009 when they sold it for £37,000 - making it the record price for a Louise Rayner painting. We have moved further eastwards from the views above, taking the right-hand street past the market buildings. Beside us on the left are a heavily decorated house being slightly overwhelmed by its bigger neighbour, and just beyond them is the Butter Market (more commonly referred to as the Buttercross). Straight ahead is this road's junction with the top of Broad Street and another ornately patterned Tudor-style building, The stepped-out building on the corner was probably oak frames filled with wattle and daub in an early part of its life, then plastered completely to modernise its looks and reduce the effort of maintenance (but local historians may know better!). We don't have a date for the scene, but we'd put it with others here, in the 1860s.
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By the time she painted this, Louise was obviously getting the hang of painting people(!) and really let herself go. There are more than 60 people in the foreground alone, and plenty more inside the Buttercross, in the distance, and even one or two at windows. So many, in fact, that it is almost as if she were challenging herself to see how many she could reasonably fit in. Or perhaps her brother Richard (not usually a crowd painter) was with her and challenged her as a joke! It is quite possible that he was with her, because this painting may stem from their 1865 artistic foray. It's certainly from when she could still comfortably do detailed work. Street lights hang out from either side of the Buttercross, but the one on the mainstreet side could easily have been lost against its similar-coloured background and simply hinted at. Instead, it holds up very convincingly to close examination.
We don't have a proper title for the painting, so we're just calling it Ludlow Buttercross, East Side until some kind soul tells us what it should be ("Market Day" will be ignored!).
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TEWKESBURY
In her helpfully(!) enigmatic way, Louise titled this "A Street Scene", one of her handful of frequently re-used titles.
We only had a tentative identification of the location as Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, but Darren Mitchell kindly wrote to confirm this, saying it shows Tolsey Lane, looking out to the High Street. The building at left currently houses a funeral directors and a florist shop. The building with the overhang on the right is called Cross House (presumably from the road junction) and is now a dental surgery.
If you know more about the streets and buildings shown, e.g. previous users of the buildings or things like "that building was gone by 1880 or heavily rebuilt", do please email us at dudleymall@dudleymall.co.uk, as we'd welcome those details, too. Thank you!
The Tudor building on the left sports a rather nice barley twist chimney; and the sun sign at right suggests an inn or perhaps Sun Insurance (one of the earliest insurance companies).
The painting went to Sotheby for auction in 2005, anticipating £4,000-£6,000, but we don't know the outcome. |
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GLOUCESTER
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| From Roman times or even earlier, Westgate Street was the most important street in Gloucester, being on major trading routes of the time. In mediaeval times the street had a middle row of buildings as with Ludlow and Dudley, but these are long gone, leaving a wider street in their place. To the left of Louise's picture (just titled Gloucester, as far as we know, and looking towards the north-west) is St. Nicholas's Church. The step in its spire is a legacy from the English Civil War, when Gloucester was besieged by the Royalists in 1643, and their artillery scored a direct hit on what was once a 200 foot high spire. In Louise's nineteenth century view, pavements have arrived, but not street lighting. There are one or two hints of large skirts, but usually on large women, so these give no pointers to period, so we'd suggest the 1870s until someone can confirm or correct us. A lot of old building still survive in the street today, but fresh modern frontages have disguised them a little too well for them to match the charm of Louise's painting.
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THE UNCAUGHT...
Finally, we know that Louise did a painting of Mount Street, and of St. Giles Church, Wrexham, North Wales;
at least two views of Tewkesbury (one was on sale in 2005); and surely more of Gloucester. But we'll have to wait for someone to send us images before we can include them here.
NOTE: This page is directly continued by Louise in the South and West (here).
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Harry Drummond, February, 2010.
Please take note: we claim no art expertise, and in no way do we offer provenance for any paintings.
What you see here was compiled out of interest in Louise Rayner's paintings and those by her family, but is based on
sometimes very fragmentary evidence. As such, it is inevitable that there will be errors, though we naturally hope
to reduce these over time.
We would gratefully receive any information or corrections that will help us to fill the gaps and
resolve unproved links - for example confirmation of dates of birth, death, etc., and details of other addresses the family
lived at (and roughly when). Images of any of the family's paintings would also be very welcome. Thank you!
Copyright © 2010 DudleyMall.
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