Wandsworth High Street
Watercolour by Evacustes A. Phipson depicting Wandsworth High street. 1913.
The watercolour depicts a view of the High Street before it was widened. The scene is dominated by a cluster of buildings, with their muted brown façades, multitude of red chimneys and irregular rooflines. The architecture is plain yet dignified, with small-paned sash windows and projecting bays. The roof in the foreground tilts gently, clad in reddish tiles. The street curves gently, its surface rendered in cool grey washes, leading the eye toward the line of buildings that disappear beyond the frame.
In the foreground, a male figure pushes a handcart laden with orange contents, its wooden wheels and iron rims carefully detailed. Nearby, two female figures stand in conversation, their garments simple, and one of them is pushing a pram. Another female figure with a black hat, a reddish cape and a white apron walks away from the scene. Further along, a horse-drawn cart waits near the curb and a female figure in grey passes by it.
Artist Biography
Edward Arthur Phipson (1854-1931) Known as Evacustes, was one of the most prolific British topographical watercolourists in the 1890s and throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century. He produced over 1400 paintings, most being views within England. He was born in King’s Norton, Birmingham in 1854 and adopted the name Evacustes from the Greek word for ‘ready listener’ in about 1880. He was an utopian and tried to establish several utopian societies in Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. He joined the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1905 and campaigned seeking to save individual buildings or encouraging the reuse of their old materials.
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