Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/james-boswell-787" aria-label="More by James Boswell" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">James Boswell</a>
Street
Presented by Ruth Boswell, the artist's widow 2000
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
book - non-specific
crowd
England
groups
leisure and pastimes
lifestyle and culture
London - non-specific
man
objects
people
places
public and municipal
reading
reading, writing, printed matter
recreational activities
shop
signage
society
standing
street
talking
townscapes / man-made features
UK countries and regions
UK London
urban environment
walking
woman
<p>When Boswell joined the Communist Party in 1932 he gave up painting and began to produce graphics for mass reproduction. The prints shown here were made as a result of the many evenings and weekends that he spent exploring the streets and pubs of working-class London, especially in Camden where he lived.</p><p>Boswell was a founder member of the Artists International Association. This group of artists and designers was formed in 1933 in response to the increasing threat of Fascism and the economic crisis in Britain.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper print lithograph
10 November 2003 – 20 October 2004
2004-10-20
10 November 2003
2003-11-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-10
1930s Documentary
Collection based display
24 June 2024
24 June 2024
2024-06-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2024-06-24
Archive Gallery: Artists International Association
Collection based display
The Street
image: 210 × 193 mm
Presented by Ruth Boswell, the artist's widow 2000
<p>In this small illustration Boswell portrays a London street lined with shops. In the foreground a corpulent gentleman, dressed in a suit, is shown exchanging news with another man smoking a cigarette. Both men hold newspapers under their arms which, taking in to account the notice for the Left Book Club behind them, may be the Club’s radical paper, <i>Left News.</i> In the background some people walk up the street past the shop windows hurriedly, while others stand and gossip. The only visible sign is the advertisement for ‘The Left Book Club’. Founded in 1936, the Club was primarily set up to oppose Fascism and is described by Egbert: ‘The Club became the most active and largest organized body in Britain working for a Popular Front and the greatest single force for the dissemination of left-wing thought there’ (Donald Drew Egbert, <i>Social Radicalism and the Arts, </i>London 1970, p.517). In the year this <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/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> was made Boswell could be included amongst 60,000 other Club members drawn from many professional groups including lawyers, busmen, poets and actors.
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<br/>Born in New Zealand, Boswell moved to London in 1925 where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1932 he joined the Communist Party and gave up <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> for politically motivated graphic work. He learned the art of <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/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithography</span></a> by attending evening classes taught by the artist James Fitton (1899-1982) at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in Southampton Row. In 1933 Boswell became co-founder of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/artists-international-association" title="Glossary definition for 'Artists International Association'"><span>Artists International Association</span></a>, along with Paul Hogarth (1917-2001) and James Fitton (1899-1982), and began to contribute sketches to left-wing periodicals, <i>The Left Review </i>and the <i>Daily Worker. </i>Many of these prints are political satires, for example <i>Empire Builders </i>(Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/boswell-empire-builders-p01823" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P01823</span></a>). <i>The Street </i>reveals Boswell’s fascination with the life of ordinary people in London, and his ability to create original images of his daily surroundings. Clear comparisons can be made with the graphic work of George Cruickshank (1792-1878) and the French illustrator, Gustave Doré (1832-1883) who, although working a century earlier, equally exploited the effects produced by print-making to capture contemporary London life.
<br/>
<br/>It is not known where this print was published. However it is one of a series of prints depicting places in London, including a cinema (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/boswell-the-cinema-p11669" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11669</span></a>), a railway station (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/boswell-the-station-p11667" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11667</span></a>) and the oratory in Hyde Park. Feaver describes the series: ‘This is the London of Graham Greene’s seedy, conscience-stricken agents, of Patrick Hamilton’s hungover failures in life, of Orwell’s down and out literary agents’ (Feaver, p.6).
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<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>William Feaver, <i>Boswell’s London: Drawings by James Boswell Showing Changing London from the Thirties to the Fifties, </i>London 1978
<br/><i>James Boswell: Extracting the Dream Reality, </i>exhibition catalogue, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London 1999
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<br/>Heather Birchall
<br/>January 2004
<br/></p>

Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="para1">
<span class="text0">When Boswell joined the Communist Party in 1932 he gave      up <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> and began to produce graphics for mass reproduction. The <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/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a>      shown here were made as a result of the many evenings and weekends that he      spent exploring the streets and pubs of working-class London, especially in      Camden where he lived.  </span>
</div>
<div class="para10">
<span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="para1">
<span class="text0">Boswell was a founder member of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/artists-international-association" title="Glossary definition for 'Artists International Association'"><span>Artists      International Association</span></a>. This group of artists and designers was formed      in 1933 in response to the increasing threat of Fascism and the economic      crisis in Britain.  </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-09-09T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults architecture book - non-specific crowd England groups leisure and pastimes lifestyle and culture London - non-specific man objects people places public and municipal reading reading, writing, printed matter recreational activities shop signage society standing street talking townscapes / man-made features UK countries and regions UK London urban environment walking woman