Today I present another extract from my new book EAST END VERNACULAR, Artists who painted London’s East End streets in the 20th century to be published by Spitalfields Life Books in October. Click here to preorder your copy
Wapping Pier Head, 1935
In the second half of the last century, the meticulously rendered paintings of Stanley Roy Badmin (1906–89) achieved universal recognition among millions who may not have known his name but were familiar with his ubiquitous style. His work appeared on the covers of such popular publications as Readers’ Digest and Radio Times, in books such as the Puffin Picture Book of Village & Town, 1939, and the Ladybird Book of Trees, 1963 – as well as gracing Christmas cards published by Royle on both sides of the Atlantic.
Born in Sydenham to a family that originated in Somerset, Stanley often visited his grandfather who was a cabinet maker in the Mendips and his love for the English countryside remained a central theme throughout his artistic life. An interest in waterways, rivers, canals and bridges was part of Stanley’s fascination with the rural landscape and it was perhaps this which drew him to paint Wapping Pier Head. Certainly, there is very little in the picture to indicate that this is an urban scene. Remarkably in Wapping, where after the closure of the London Docks and their subsequent redevelopment very little remains of the past, Stanley’s view of Wapping Pier Head survives unaltered today.
At Camberwell Art School in 1922, Thomas Derrick encouraged Stanley to paint familiar subjects. “He gave me a good talking to about painting things around me and not ladies in crinolines,” recalled Stanley. Winning a place at the Royal College of Art, Stanley switched from painting to design with the blessing of William Rothenstein.
Graduating in 1927, he soon won commissions for magazine illustrations which were followed by a string of books, beginning with Highways & Byways in Essex in 1937. Additionally, Stanley travelled around the country, working for the Pilgrim Trust from 1940 as part of its Recording Britain scheme, dedicated to documenting views and buildings that were at risk, either from neglect, demolition or enemy bombs.
Postwar, Stanley’s lyrical vision of the rural English landscape caught the national imagination. Yet it avoided the nostalgic romanticism of his contemporaries through a concern with the reality of agricultural life as expressed in its working detail, farm machinery and infrastructure.
Above all, Stanley’s paintings confront the viewer with wonder at the astonishing minutiae of the world, sometimes rendering every twig and leaf in the sharp focus of a dream, and inviting us to peer into his pictures as if we are looking through a window.
Wapping Pier Head reproduced courtesy of Museum of London
The Estate of SR Badmin is represented by Chris Beetles Gallery
Take a look at some of the other artists featured in East End Vernacular
John Allin, Artist
Pearl Binder, Artist
Dorothy Bishop, Artist
Roland Collins, Artist
Anthony Eyton, Artist
Doreen Fletcher, Artist
Barnett Freedman, Artist
Lawrence Gowing, Artist
Harry T. Harmer, Artist
Elwin Hawthorn, Artist
Rose Henriques, Artist
Charles Ginner, Artist
Dan Jones, Artist
Nathaniel Kornbluth, Artist
Leon Kossoff, Artist
James Mackinnon, Artist
Jock McFadyen, Artist
Cyril Mann, Artist
Ronald Morgan, Artist
Grace Oscroft, Artist
Peri Parkes, Artist
Henry Silk, Artist
Harold & Walter Steggles, Artists
Albert Turpin, Artist
This post first appeared on Spitalfields Life | In The Midst Of Life I Woke To, please read the originial post: here