Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/walter-greaves-222" aria-label="More by Walter Greaves" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Walter Greaves</a>
Battersea Reach
Purchased 1940
adults
architecture
Battersea - non-specific
boat, barge
boat, sailing
bridge
bridges and viaducts
cart
dock
England
figure
people
places
river
River Thames
society
townscape
townscapes / man-made features
transport: land
transport: water
UK countries and regions
UK London
UK natural features
water: inland
<p>In the 19th century the waterfront at Chelsea, London was busy with barges and steamboats. Greaves painted this stretch of the river Thames several times. Here he includes the steeple of St Mary’s Church, Battersea.Greaves was the son of a Chelsea boat-builder. He met the artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler in 1863 and they became close friends. Whistler frequently went out on the family’s boats to paint river scenes. Greaves said ‘Chelsea was so beautiful that you couldn’t but paint it. To Mr Whistler, a boat was always a tone. To me, it was just a boat’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
Battersea Reach
support: 641 × 768 mm
frame: 888 × 1016 × 66 mm
Purchased 1940
<div class="text">
<p>In the 19th century the waterfront at Chelsea, London was busy with barges and steamboats. Greaves painted this stretch of the river Thames several times. Here he includes the steeple of St Mary’s Church, Battersea.<br/>Greaves was the son of a Chelsea boat-builder. He met the artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler in 1863 and they became close friends. Whistler frequently went out on the family’s boats to paint river scenes. Greaves said ‘Chelsea was so beautiful that you couldn’t but paint it. To Mr Whistler, a boat was always a tone. To me, it was just a boat’.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-04-26T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
adults architecture Battersea - non-specific boat, barge boat, sailing bridge bridges and viaducts cart dock England figure people places river River Thames society townscape townscapes / man-made features transport: land transport: water UK countries and regions UK London UK natural features water: inland