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>
Fall London Waterloo
Presented by Ruth Boswell, the artist's widow 2000
arch
architecture
destruction
emotions, concepts and ideas
England
features
government and politics
historical: imagined views
London
London - non-specific
places
public and municipal
public and municipal
railway
railway station
revolutionary
ruins
social comment
society
telegraph pole
townscape
townscapes / man-made features
train
transport: land
UK countries and regions
UK London
universal concepts
war
<p><span>Waterloo </span>one of eight 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. Unlike the majority of the other prints in the series, Boswell gives the exact location of this terrifying scene. The enormous arch of the railway bridge rises above the built up area in the background and the train, which appears crushed and about to fall over, in the foreground. Passengers can be seen disembarking from the carriages which tilt unnervingly to the left. The railway signal leans surprisingly in the opposite direction. The expressionist lighting lends to London’s mainline station an even more forbidding atmosphere.</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: Waterloo
image: 133 × 95 mm
Presented by Ruth Boswell, the artist's widow 2000
<p><i>Waterloo </i>one of eight <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. Unlike the majority of the other prints in the series, Boswell gives the exact location of this terrifying scene. The enormous arch of the railway bridge rises above the built up area in the background and the train, which appears crushed and about to fall over, in the foreground. Passengers can be seen disembarking from the carriages which tilt unnervingly to the left. The railway signal leans surprisingly in the opposite direction. 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/e/expressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Expressionism'"><span>expressionist</span></a> lighting lends to London’s mainline station an even more forbidding atmosphere.
<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 the energy and destructive force of the city. 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 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 the prints of <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).
<br/>
<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, London 1999
<br/>
<br/>Heather Birchall 
<br/>September 2003</p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
arch architecture destruction emotions, concepts and ideas England features government and politics historical: imagined views London London - non-specific places public and municipal public and municipal railway railway station revolutionary ruins social comment society telegraph pole townscape townscapes / man-made features train transport: land UK countries and regions UK London universal concepts war