Fine Art

The Art of Work: Snibston Mine by Paul Waplington, 1980s.

Paul Waplington spent time at Snibston mine creating images of the miners and the colliery architecture. The collections include some of his drawings as well as this oil painting. It shows the end of shift at Snibston colliery in Coalville - the Leicestershire town that owed its name and existence to coal and the mine that George and Robert Stephenson sank to bring it to the surface. The miners are crossing over the Ashby Road and heading for the baths that were built opposite the headstocks and coal processing plant that dominate the background of the painting and the skyline of the town.

The Art of Work: Tubes Factory, Desford, Leicestershire 1974 by Anton Mark Ferrow

The Tubes Factory at Newtown Unthank near Desford was part of the Tubes Investments Company (later TI). Its rolling and bearing tube mills made heavy duty metal tubes for many different industries. By 1969 the Desford works were the most advanced and integrated plant for making roll and bearing tubes. Five years after this picture was painted Desford Tubes won the Queens Award for Export. The picture shows part of the tube mill with hot metal being formed into long cylinders whilst the workers control the process and wait to move the tubes through the various process within the factory. The heat of the mills and furnaces cast an orange glow across the picture.

The Art of Work: The Path to the Village - Tilton on the Hill by John Fulleylove

Leicester-born John Fulleylove painted many watercolours around Leicestershire in the last part of the nineteenth century. In this picture he shows a group of women and children walking along the path back to the village. Some of them are carrying bundles but it's hard to see what these are. Perhaps there are some clues in the painting? In the garden of the house to the right of the path there is a washing line full of clean laundry. Perhaps it's wash day and the women are bringing bundles of clothes up from the river or stream where they have been doing the hard work of laundry by hand. Or maybe they have taken food down to their families working in the fields around the village? Whatever they have been doing this is one of a few images of women at work that we have in the collections.

The Art of Work: Dimmingsdale Quarry around 1810 (Artist unknown)

The Dimmingsdale quarries were part of Earl Ferrer's estate at Staunton Harold. The quarries were created to remove the valuable limestone from the ground, which was dug out by hand, creating vast man-made 'caves' which disappeared into the side of the quarry. As quarrying continued lead was discovered and this was also mined alongside the quarried limestone. The pictures shows the various labours needed to extract the minerals: Men using picks and shovels are working in the cave mouths whilst others move the rock in wheelbarrows (some working on wooden walkways over flooded areas of the quarry). The barrows are unloaded into carts and horses are waiting to pull the carts out of the quarry. The discovery of minerals including lead and coal beneath their estates made many land owners incredibly wealthy during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. New mining and quarrying communities grew up as people left their homes and jobs in other parts of the country to come and work in the new industries. Hard physical work, poor conditions, danger and poor pay made mining a tough job.

The Art of Work: A Framework Knitter at Work 1891 by Mary Sloane

Knitting both by hand and machine has a long history across Leicestershire. Leicester had the largest knitting industry but there were factories and workshops across the county. William Lee had invented a machine which could knit using multiple needles during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I but it wasn't until the 1700s that people began to use these knitting frames in large numbers. Sometimes working in their own homes and sometimes working on frames gathered together in workshops, stocking makers or 'Stockingers' worked long hours for poor pay. The knitting workshops continued well into the early twentieth century - this etching probably dates from 1891 (there is a watercolour version in Leicester's Museum collections) - but the expansion of factory based mass production and new technologies meant that the knitting frame became obsolete for all but craft production.

The Art of Work: Nailstone Study for Oil. Pen and ink drawing by Noel Brannan (1921-2001), 1991.

Noel Brannan was born in Northumberland in 1921, both his father and brother were keen artists. After studying at Lincoln and Leicester School of Art, he took a teaching job in Hinckley in 1952. He lived in and sketched Leicestershire’s landscape until his death in 2001.
He had a great love of industrial landscapes such as mines, tile works, chimneys, quarries, canals and areas of wasteland, which were his favourite sketching ground. He sketched and painted Nailstone Colliery prior to its demolition in 1991.

Portraits: Portrait of Mrs Martha Nichols. Oil painting by Francis Towne (1740?-1816).

Martha Nichols (1756-1788) was the daughter of William Green of Hinckley. She married John Nichols on the 11th June, 1778 at St. Mary’s Church in Hinckley. John Nichols was an author and editor who owned one of the largest printing houses in London. He published agenda papers and journals for the House of Commons, the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society. He also published books on topography, antiquities and ancient legends of England including the ‘The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester’ completed in 1815.

Portraits: This portrait of botanist Richard Pulteney was painted in 1788 by Thomas Beach (1738-1806). Beach was a respected portrait painter who worked in both London and Bath and exhibited work at the Royal Academy.

Richard Pulteney (1730-1801) was known as 'the pioneer of Leicestershire botany'. Born in Mountsorrel, Loughborough, he went to Edinburgh University and became a medical doctor, then worked in Leicester as a surgeon. His botanical studies were centred on Loughborough. In 1747 he published ‘A Catalogue of Plants in the Neighbourhood of Loughborough’ which lists plants in Charnwood. He provided the first records of nearly 600 species recorded in the 1886 ‘Flora of Leicestershire’, out of total of 891.

Portraits: Dr John Bowles (1765-1834). Oil painting by Benjamin Marshall, 1825.

John Bowles (1765-1834) was a veterinary surgeon who qualified from The Royal Veterinary College London in 1798. He worked in Cambridge and Newmarket, aiding the horses of both the poor and the wealthy. The painting was in the collection of the Bowles family until 1971 and purchased by Leicestershire Museum Service in 1972.

Ben Marshall was born at Seagrave but spent most of his career in London from 1791 onwards. At the height of his career, in 1800, he exhibited at the Royal Academy though he never became an Associate. In 1801 the young John Ferneley became his apprentice for three years.