London over the M25 from Essex , 1998-2001
oil on canvas, 1820mm x 810mm
Private collection
The view is from Tylers Common, high ground where thousands
gathered with Wat Tyler to march on London in The Peasants Revolt
of 1381.
The picture documents London at the turn of the century. A
European tradition of distant prospects of cities dates from
ancient Rome to the Renaissance and Breughel, seventeenth century
topographers like Hollar and Siberechts, to Turner. Starting points
for this painting included Turner's view of
London from Greenwich of 1809 (Tate Britain) and the
work of Monet & Pissarro on the outskirts of Paris and van Gogh
at Arles.
The wood is a fragment of old woodland at Brentwood. The view
shows many conflicting uses of land and contrasts old nature and
new culture, a theme that preoccupied English and French artists in
the nineteenth century and which is still with us.
London represents modern England: power cables, telephone wires,
pipelines, road, river and rail routes cross-crossing the land with
jet contrails overhead. Magpies and house martins which have co
existed with man since the time of Breughel and beyond fly over a
huge road that can be seen and heard for miles.
On the ancient hill a father with a child on his shoulders links
past, present and future.