Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
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<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>
Fall London Horseguard
Presented by Ruth Boswell, the artist's widow 2000
actions: postures and motions
adults
arch
architecture
birth to death
body
corpse
crime and punishment
death
destruction
diseases and conditions
emotions, concepts and ideas
England
execution
features
figure
government and politics
hanged
historical: imagined views
London
London - non-specific
lying down
people
places
revolutionary
ruins
social comment
society
streetlight
suspended
townscape
townscapes / man-made features
UK countries and regions
UK London
universal concepts
war
<p><span>The Horseguard </span>is one of a series of eight small lithographs describing <span>The Fall of London. </span>Ron Heisler believes that<span> </span>they were originally conceived for a book by Frank McIlraith and Roy Connolly called <span>Invasion From The Air </span>which describes a Fascist invasion of England (information from Ron Heisler, August 2003). The theme of the book, which was published in 1934, is reminiscent of Boswell’s prints, which illustrate both popular uprisings in the City of London and horrific scenes of the city in ruins.<span> </span>The title of this print refers to the mounted guard who stands facing Whitehall on Horse Guards Parade in London. In contrast to this display of pageantry Boswell portrays a horrifying scene of two brutal murders in one of London’s primary thoroughfares. A man hangs limply from a crooked lamppost, and the guard and his horse are spread out awkwardly on the ground. The shadows cast by the arch of the bridge intensifies the sinister atmosphere of the scene. The bombed out buildings in the background are left over from the crowds of revolutionaries who have stormed the city leaving behind a trail of chaos and destruction.</p>
paper print lithograph
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
2014-03-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-03-04
Ruin Lust
Exhibition
The Fall of London: The Horseguard
image: 133 × 95 mm
Presented by Ruth Boswell, the artist's widow 2000
<div class="Normal__Text"><i>The Horseguard </i>is one of a series of eight small <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>lithographs</span></a> describing <i>The Fall of London. </i>Ron Heisler believes that<i> </i>they were originally conceived for a book by Frank McIlraith and Roy Connolly called <i>Invasion From The Air </i>which describes a Fascist invasion of England (information from Ron Heisler, August 2003). The theme of the book, which was published in 1934, is reminiscent of Boswell’s <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>, which illustrate both popular uprisings in the City of London and horrific scenes of the city in ruins.<i> </i>The title of this print refers to the mounted guard who stands facing Whitehall on Horse Guards Parade in London. In contrast to this display of pageantry Boswell portrays a horrifying scene of two brutal murders in one of London’s primary thoroughfares. A man hangs limply from a crooked lamppost, and the guard and his horse are spread out awkwardly on the ground. The shadows cast by the arch of the bridge intensifies the sinister atmosphere of the scene. The bombed out buildings in the background are left over from the crowds of revolutionaries who have stormed the city leaving behind a trail of chaos and destruction.
<br/>
<br/>Boswell learned the art of lithography by attending evening classes taught by the artist James Fitton (1899-1982) at London County Council’s Central School of Arts and Crafts in Southampton Row. His mastery of the technique is evident from this powerful and dense image which, despite its small size, illustrates both a sense of the desolation and fear on the streets of London. He was undoubtedly influenced by the French artists Gustave Doré (1832-1883), and Honoré Daumier (1808-79). Like these artists Boswell received his inspiration by walking in the city at evenings and at the weekends when the narrow and winding streets of London were deserted. The richness of detail and shocking nature of some of the scenes also recalls the series by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), <i>The Disasters of War. </i>These graphic images portray the death and destruction which the artist himself witnessed during the Peninsular War (1807-14).
<br/>
<br/>Boswell made these lithographs in the same year that he became a 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>. Founded in 1933 this group was composed of politically engaged artists and designers, including James Fitton and Clifford Rowe (1904-89). The movement was founded as a reaction to the Great Depression of 1929 to 1936 which led to mass unemployment amongst the working classes. This period also witnessed Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and, as a direct consequence of this, the foundation of the Joint Committee for Anti-Fascist Action in Britain. Many of the artists, including Boswell, became members of the Communist Party and had as their objective, to use art as a ‘weapon of the proletariat in the economic and political struggle against the bourgeoisie’ (Donald Drew Egbert, <i>Social Radicalism and the Arts, </i>London 1970, p.497). Although Boswell’s series was not published, the lithographs powerfully express his reaction to the political climate of the time and the consequences of the rise of Fascism. William Feaver described <i>The Fall of London</i>: ‘Here was the long-awaited apocalypse: looting and mass panic, as familiar landmarks – Waterloo, the British Museum, a Lyons Corner House and London Bridge – toppled’ (Feaver, p.5).
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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/>Barry Curtis, ‘James Boswell’, <i>Block </i>no.1, 1979, pp.53-6
<br/><i>James Boswell: Extracting the Dream Reality, </i>exhibition catalogue, Austin/Desmond Fine Art,<i> </i>London 1999
<br/>
<br/>Heather Birchall
<br/>September 2003</div>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
actions: postures and motions adults arch architecture birth to death body corpse crime and punishment death destruction diseases and conditions emotions, concepts and ideas England execution features figure government and politics hanged historical: imagined views London London - non-specific lying down people places revolutionary ruins social comment society streetlight suspended townscape townscapes / man-made features UK countries and regions UK London universal concepts war