Oil paint on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jacques-emile-blanche-765" aria-label="More by Jacques-Émile Blanche" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Jacques-Émile Blanche</a>
Ludgate Circus Entrance to City November Midday
Presented by Georges A. Mevil-Blanche 1947
adults
architecture
autumn
bridge
bridges and viaducts
bus
car
carriage
cathedral
City of London
City of London, St Paul’s Cathedral
England
figure
Ludgate Circus
midday
people
places
religious
seasons
society
street
times of the day
townscape
townscapes / man-made features
train
transport: land
UK countries and regions
UK London
<p>This painting shows a view from Ludgate Circus, in the City of London looking down towards St Paul’s. The foreground is crowded with horse-drawn cabs and motor buses. A steam train crosses Ludgate Hill railway bridge above, which was demolished in 1990 to make way for the Thameslink. Blanche regularly visited London from France and lived in the city for six years from 1905. He used a four-wheeled vehicle as an extra studio from which he could make finished pictures of the city.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint board
5 May 2003 – 13 April 2004
2004-04-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-05-05
London: Modern City
Collection based display
2 February 2006 – 4 June 2006
2006-06-04
2 February 2006 – 4 June 2006
2006-06-04
2006-02-02
Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin, Italy)
2006-02-02
Metropolis. The city as imagined by the avant-gardes
Loan-out
14 December 2012 – 26 September 2022
2022-09-26
10 December 2012 – 25 September 2022
2022-09-25
2012-12-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-12-14
Gallery 4
Collection based display
Ludgate Circus: Entrance to the City (November, Midday)
support: 1048 × 816 mm
frame: 1255 × 1025 × 63 mm
Presented by Georges A. Mevil-Blanche 1947
<div class="text">
<p>This painting shows a view from Ludgate Circus, in the City of London looking down towards St Paul’s. The foreground is crowded with horse-drawn cabs and motor buses. A steam train crosses Ludgate Hill railway bridge above, which was demolished in 1990 to make way for the Thameslink. Blanche regularly visited London from France and lived in the city for six years from 1905. He used a four-wheeled vehicle as an extra studio from which he could make finished pictures of the city.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-10-13T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Jacques-Emile Blanche</b><span> 1861-1942 </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blanche-ludgate-circus-entrance-to-the-city-november-midday-n05755" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05755</span></a> </span><b>Ludgate Circus: Entrée de la City (Novembre, Midi)</b><span> (Ludgate Circus: Entrance to the City (November, Mid-day)) </span><i>c</i><span>.1910 </span>
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<p><span>Inscribed 'J.E. Blanche' b.r.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on millboard, 41 ¼ x 32 1/8 (104.5 x 81.5)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Georges A. Mevil-Blanche 1947</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Georges A. Mevil-Blanche, Offranville (bequest from the artist)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Cent Paysages de Jacques-Emile Blanche</i><span>, Hôtel de Jean Charpentier, Paris, May-June 1927 (3, repr.) as 'Ludgate Circus: Entrée de la City (Novembre, midi)'; </span><i>Jacques-Emile Blanche</i><span>, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, May-June 1929 (34) as 'Londres. Ludgate Hill et Saint-Paul'</span><br/><i>Lit:</i><span> John Rothenstein, 'Jacques-Emile Blanche' in </span><i>Apollo</i><span>, XII, 1930, p.204 </span>
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<p><span>According to Sir John Rothenstein, loc. cit.: 'In 1905, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> with greater and greater freedom and ease, the artist [Blanche] moved to London, where he remained for six years. Using a four-wheeler as an extra studio (for he already had one in William Street, Knightsbridge), he made a great number of finished paintings and studies of the town.' His exhibition at the Galerie Charpentier in 1929 included eighteen views of London, of such motifs as Belgrave Square, the Royal Exchange, Piccadilly Circus and Sloane Street (the last two of these are now in the City of York Art Gallery). He evidently continued to paint London views after 1911, as the introductory note to the catalogue of his exhibition at Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, in February 1914 (which included some London views, but not this particular work) states as follows: 'The London views form part of a series on which the artist has been working for several years and which he intends to continue'. </span>
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<p><span>This painting shows a view from Ludgate Circus, looking down Ludgate Hill towards St. Paul's. The vehicles would appear to indicate a date about 1910. John R. Day, the Manager of the London Transport Collection, writes that in 1910 'there were still over 2000 Hansom Cabs licenced in London but there were also more than 6000 motor taxi-cabs. Both these types of cab appear in the lower half of the picture. I am also inclined to think that the buses (with the possible exception of the nearest one) are motor-buses - the horse-bus was virtually finished in London by the end of 1911' (letter of 25 July 1975). </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.58-9, reproduced p.58</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture autumn bridge bridges and viaducts bus car carriage cathedral City of London City of London, St Paul’s Cathedral England figure Ludgate Circus midday people places religious seasons society street times of the day townscape townscapes / man-made features train transport: land UK countries and regions UK London