Posted 3 years ago
keramikos
(26 items)
This is an admittedly far from perfect attempt to compare Lornafallace's beautiful 1992 and 1991 Martin Turner paintings from his "The London Lights and Rain" series with snapshots of what I think might be the locations as seen in Google Street View, side-by-side.
Thank you very much lornafallace, for allowing me to use copies of your pictures. :-)
I suspect that the central subject of both paintings is a building called the Regent House located at 229 - 247 Regent Street, London, UK.
The first snapshot is of a July 2021 Google Street View from the vantage point of somebody near the corner of Regent Street and Great Marlborough Street, looking north up Regent Street, and is compared with Turner's 1992 painting.
The second snapshot is of a July 2021 Google Street View from the vantage point of somebody approximately near number 258, looking south down Regent Street, and is compared with Turner's 1991 painting.
There are numerous discrepancies, some of which could be attributable to the passage of time (and changes the city has made over the last thirty-odd years), such as the traffic lights, the street lamps, and the brick median strip. You can in fact see many changes by taking a trip through Google Street View history.
However, one notable discrepancy that can't be attributable to the passage of time is the big, arched windows on the street level of Regent House 235-241. You see these clearly in photographs of Regent House over the years, but not at all in Turner's paintings. I have no explanation for that discrepancy, other than it might have been artistic license on the part of Turner.
I didn't trim my Google Street View snapshots, except to get rid of non-image content.
Aside from any other problems (such as me being a craptastic editor), Google Street Views tend to be problematic because they're mostly taken by 360 degree cameras mounted on top of automobiles, and the images are subsequently 'stitched' together.
Especially in the case of Turner's 1991 painting, the vantage point was probably that of a pedestrian standing on the sidewalk, and that can't really be replicated by a photograph taken from an automobile.
20220205:
Via email, drchrisstuttle concurred that Regent Street with Regent House as the central subject is the location for these two Martin Turner paintings, so I'm marking this as a "Mystery Solved."
LINKS 20220204:
CW user lornafallace's post with pictures of Martin Turner's 1992 and 1991 paintings from his "The London Lights and Rain Series" (thank you again, lornafallace):
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/304554-martin-turner-paintings-2
CW user drchrisstuttle's Martin Turner blog:
https://martinturnerart.wordpress.com/
The National Heritage List For England entry for Regent House:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1265197?section=official-listing
Regent House from the south Google Street View July 2021
https://goo.gl/maps/TVsPkNWZMWJKGooK6
Regent House from the north Google Street View July 2021
https://goo.gl/maps/nHFtmXAALuyTwKsY8
The Collectors Weekly Post that started my obsession:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/2432-martin-turner-painting
Another Collectors Weekly Martin Turner post:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/70498-martin-turner-piece
Miscellaneous links:
https://lookup.london/regent-street-history-above/
https://www.archiseek.com/2014/1898-t-h-brooke-hitchings-229-247-regent-st-london/
http://www.speel.me.uk/sculptlondon/regentst.htm
https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKM4K_Apple_Store_Mosaics_Regent_Street_London_UK
https://www.archdaily.com/797835/apple-regent-street-foster-plus-partners
https://londonhuawiki.wpi.edu/index.php/The_Rise_of_New_Design_in_Old_London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent_Street
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Regent_Street
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/489974
http://www.lightgb.myfreeola.com/xmas/xmas/london/regentstreet/regentstreetchristmaslights.htm
https://www.regentstreetonline.com/200th-anniversary/regent-street-s-past-a-200-year-timeline
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols31-2/pt2/pp85-100
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/the-history-of-regent-street-in-london/
https://salviatimosaics.blogspot.com/2013/01/apple-store-at-235-regent-street.html