Jenna Burlingham Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Artists
  • Artworks
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • About
  • How to Buy
  • Contact
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu

MODERN BRITISH

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: John Piper, Cheltenham - Queen's Parade, 1939 circa
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: John Piper, Cheltenham - Queen's Parade, 1939 circa

John Piper 1903-1992

Cheltenham - Queen's Parade, 1939 circa
paper collage over gouache, watercolour and pen and ink
21.5 x 24 cm
8 1/2 x 9 1/2 in
titled

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Thumbnail of additional image
Piper was first drawn to collage after seeing a show of Picasso’s Papiers colles of 1912-13 at the Galeries Pierre in Paris. ‘[I] was deeply impressed by the intense poetry...
Read more
Piper was first drawn to collage after seeing a show of Picasso’s Papiers colles of 1912-13 at the Galeries Pierre in Paris. ‘[I] was deeply impressed by the intense poetry that he [Picasso] generated by putting two or three bits for Ingres there’ (John Piper quoted in Piper’s Places Richard Ingrams and John Piper, p.21). In 1938, Piper returned to architecture as his subject in his collages for the first time since his coastal pubs and villas of the early 1930s. For the previous five years he had been focusing more on his abstract works often with collage elements. This return to architecture comprised a group of collages of some Welsh nonconformist chapels which he exhibited at the London Gallery – his first solo show. By 1939, Piper had re-discovered his love of British topography and, initially due to his commission to produce the Shell Guide for Oxford, was touring around the towns and houses of Britain depicting in his work their forgotten beauty. Although watercolours were starting to dominate, he still incorporated collage into his works at this time.

This work of the Queen’s Parade, Cheltenham is sparse in style: coloured browns and yellows reflect the Cotswold stone with blocks of black ink alluding to the lower windows. The only detail in the work is the delicately applied white gouache which depicts the intricate white iron balustrade, pilasters and roof. In contract, the collage elements capture the simplicity of the regency structure of the upper half of the building echoing the colour palette of the watercolour below. Piper comments ‘I carried about a portfolio full of torn and cut strips of paper of different colours, (and a variety of shades of the same colour), saved or picked up at random and in the heat of the moment, stuck or pinned insecurely, then applied more carefully at leisure in the studio’ (ibid., p.22). Piper would have been drawn to the varied textures and colours of this row of houses. The work itself though depicting the Parade is semi-abstract, combining Piper’s interest in architecture and topography with his non-figurative work of the previous five years. At this time Piper was making a lithograph to accompany Betjeman’s article on Cheltenham for Signature in 1940 (the sketch for which we also have in the gallery). He would later use parts of the architecture of Cheltenham including the Parade for his commission for the murals at the British Embassy in Rio de Janiero in 1949.
Close full details

Provenance

gifted by the Artist to the previous owner, and thence by descent
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EJohn%20Piper%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3ECheltenham%20-%20Queen%27s%20Parade%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E1939%20circa%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3Epaper%20collage%20over%20gouache%2C%20watercolour%20and%20pen%20and%20ink%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E21.5%20x%2024%20cm%3Cbr/%3E%0A8%201/2%20x%209%201/2%20in%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22signed_and_dated%22%3Etitled%3C/div%3E
Previous
|
Next
360 
of  473

Copyright © 2025 Jenna Burlingham Gallery

Delivery and Returns      Privacy Policy

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Send an email
View on Google Maps
Privacy Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Jenna Burlingham Gallery
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join Our Mailing List

We won't spam you. We will send a monthly email highlighting new artworks and events, with very occasional other mailings.

Interests *

Sign Up

* denotes required fields

In order to respond to your enquiry, we will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in any emails.