Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/augustus-john-om-1362" aria-label="More by Augustus John OM" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Augustus John OM</a>
Little Railway Martigues
Bequeathed by Lady Henry Cavendish-Bentinck 1940
architecture
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
France
hill
landscape
Martigues
places
railway
townscapes / man-made features
wooded
painting oil paint canvas
11 February 2013 – 2 June 2013
2013-06-02
12 February 2013 – 2 June 2013
2013-06-02
2013-02-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-02-11
Looking at the View
Collection based display
26 March 2015 – 27 May 2020
2020-05-27
26 March 2015 – 21 June 2015
2015-06-21
2015-03-26
Museo Nacional de Arte (Mexico City, Mexico)
18 July 2015 – 18 October 2015
2015-10-18
2015-07-18
Pinacoteca do Estado (São Paulo, Brazil)
27 April 2018 – 5 August 2018
2018-08-05
2018-04-27
Shanghai Art Museum (Shanghai, China)
4 September 2018 – 13 November 2018
2018-11-13
2018-09-04
National Art Museum of China (Beijing, China)
2015-03-26
British Landscape
Tate partnerships & programmes
The Little Railway, Martigues
support: 470 × 546 mm
frame: 616 × 706 × 86 mm
Bequeathed by Lady Henry Cavendish-Bentinck 1940
<p><b>N05097</b> THE LITTLE RAILWAY, MARTIGUES 1928
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘John’ b.l.
<br/>Canvas, 18 1/2×21 1/2 (46×55).
<br/>Bequeathed by Lady Henry Cavendish-Bentinck 1940.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Lord Henry Cavendish-Bentinck from Arthur Tooth &amp; Sons 1929.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Arthur Tooth &amp; Sons, April–May 1929 (7 or 23: ‘The Little Railway Martigues’ 1 and 11); Temple Newsam, Leeds, July–August 1946 (48).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> T. W. Earp, ‘The Recent Work of Augustus John’ in <i>Studio</i>, XCVII, 1929, pp.231–2; John, 1952, pp.104–8, 257–64.
<br/><i>Repr:</i>
<i>Apollo</i>, IX, 1929, p.203; Rothenstein, 1944, pl.87.</p>
<p>Martigues, a little town in Provence, is situated half-way between Arles and Marseilles. John tells us that Provence ‘had been for years the goal of my dreams’ and Martigues was, of all the towns there, the one for which he had most affection. John travelled round Provence in search of the ideal place: ‘With a feeling that I was going to find what I was seeking, an anchorage at last, I returned from Marseilles, and, changing at Pas des Lanciers, took the little railway which leads to Martigues. On arriving my premonition proved correct: there was no need to seek further.’</p>
<p>The other version of ‘The Little Railway’ which was exhibited with the Tate Gallery picture in 1929 is a larger picture and includes more <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> to the left of the railway; in 1957 it was owned by the Adams Gallery, London. This or a third picture was exhibited at Agnew's, <i>Contemporary British Artists</i>, November–December 1930 (18).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents France hill landscape Martigues places railway townscapes / man-made features wooded