Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-townsend-2061" aria-label="More by William Townsend" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">William Townsend</a>
Hop Alleys
Purchased 1953
abstraction
England
England, South East
England, Southern
field
from recognisable sources
hop
Kent
landscape
landscape
places
plants and flowers
Rolvenden
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
painting oil paint canvas
Hop Alleys
support: 762 × 508 mm
frame: 932 × 677 × 77 mm
Purchased 1953
<p><b>N06148</b> HOP ALLEYS 1951–2
<br/>
<br/>Inscr. ‘Townsend’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 30×20 (75×51).
<br/>Purchased from the artist through the London Group (Knapping Fund) 1953.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>Names to Remember</i>, Roland, Browse and Delbanco, July 1952 (no catalogue); London Group, November 1952 (169), as ‘Hop Garden’.
<br/><i>Repr:</i>	Sir John Rothenstein, <i>British Art since 1900</i>, 1962, pl.54; John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1962, p.259.</p>
<p>The picture was begun in June 1951 and was painted in the studio from a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> (dated 20 May 1951) made in one of the hop gardens near the artist's home at Rolvenden, Kent. It was completed between November 1951 and February 1952, after the artist had spent the summer in Canada (letters from the artist, 1 April 1953 and 10 and 13 July 1956). 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/pen-and-ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Pen and Ink'"><span>pen and ink</span></a> drawing from which this was painted now belongs to St Pancras Borough Council, and was previously exhibited at the A.I.A. Gallery's <i>Measurement and <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/proportion" title="Glossary definition for 'Proportion'"><span>Proportion</span></a></i> exhibition in May 1955 (32). Another <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>, ‘The Hop Garden’, 1950, 24 3/4×29 3/4 in., is in the Arts Council Collection, and was exhibited at the Arts Council, <i>A Selection from the Arts Council Collection</i>, 1955 (11).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction England England, South East England, Southern field from recognisable sources hop Kent landscape landscape places plants and flowers Rolvenden UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions