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Image Not Available for Estuary of the Dee, Aberdeen
Estuary of the Dee, Aberdeen
Image Not Available for Estuary of the Dee, Aberdeen

Estuary of the Dee, Aberdeen

Artist (Lambeth, London, England, 1803 - 1852)
Mediumlithograph on paper
ClassificationsPrints
DimensionsOverall: Height: 54.61 cm, Width: 31.75 cm
CopyrightOut of copyright
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG005096
About MeJoseph William Allen was an English landscape painter. He attended St Paul's School and was drawing-master at the City of London School from its opening in 1834. Three of his paintings were bought for the Royal Collection by Prince Albert, and on his death, his wife and children being left in poverty, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert contributed £25 towards their support.

This lithograph of J. W. Allen's watercolour of the same view (also in the collections of Aberdeen Art Gallery), presents a clear image of what the River Dee was like in the mid-nineteenth century, before it became as built up as it is today. Nevertheless the picture is not overly romantic; there are women knee-deep in the river, at the back-breaking task of washing clothes and others shouldering fish creels - at the start of what will surely be a long day's drudgery.

The background contains a promise - or, perhaps, threat - of urban development: the growing city with its dominant spire of the mither Kirk of St. Nicholas, the tower of the Tolbooth and the long-gone fortress that once stood in the Castlegate.