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Inside the Nag's Head at Braintree on Market Day

Watercolour
ca. 1940 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Walter Bayes was fairly unique among the artists involved in the Recording Britain scheme in his interest in the human figure. This scene of market-day drinkers in a Braintree pub, with its slightly caricatured drinkers and scowling blonde barmaid, is characteristic of his sharp observation of human foible. Despite the satirical depiction of the pub's denizens, this is an image of nostalgia for tradition about to be lost: such scenes would become rare following the war.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Inside the Nag's Head at Braintree on Market Day (assigned by artist)
  • Recording Britain Collection (named collection)
Materials and techniques
Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
Brief description
Watercolour by Walter Bayes, 'Inside The Nag's Head at Braintree on Market Day', from the Recording Britain Collection (Essex); England, ca.1940.
Physical description
A watercolour drawing of two farmers in caps standing at the bar of the Nag's Head pub, while another sits slumped on a chair in the corner. They appear to be speaking to a smiling barman while a scowling barmaid serves them.
Dimensions
  • Height: 13.375in
  • Width: 10.25in
Credit line
Given by the Pilgrim Trust
Object history
Bayes, a founding, although minor, member of the Camden Town Group, was relatively unique among the Recording Britain artists for his concentration on the human figure and face. His sharp eye for character and personality is evident in this slightly satirical depiction of market-day customers in a Braintree pub.

This work is from the ‘Recording Britain’ collection of topographical watercolours and drawings made in the early 1940s during the Second World War. In 1940 the Committee for the Employment of Artists in Wartime, part of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, launched a scheme to employ artists to record the home front in Britain, funded by a grant from the Pilgrim Trust. It ran until 1943 and some of the country’s finest watercolour painters, such as John Piper, Sir William Russell Flint and Rowland Hilder, were commissioned to make paintings and drawings of buildings, scenes, and places which captured a sense of national identity. Their subjects were typically English: market towns and villages, churches and country estates, rural landscapes and industries, rivers and wild places, monuments and ruins. Northern Ireland was not covered, only four Welsh counties were included, and a separate scheme covered Scotland.

The scheme was known as ‘Recording the changing face of Britain’ and was established by Sir Kenneth Clark, then the director of the National Gallery. It ran alongside the official War Artists’ Scheme, which he also initiated. Clark was inspired by several motives: at the outbreak of war in 1939, there was a concern to document the British landscape in the face of the imminent threat of bomb damage, invasion, and loss caused by the operations of war. This was allied to an anxiety about changes to the landscape already underway, such as the rapid growth of cities, road building and housing developments, the decline of rural ways of life and industries, and new agricultural practices, which together contributed to the idea of a ‘vanishing Britain’. Clark also wanted to help artists, and the traditional forms of British art such as watercolour painting, to survive during the uncertain conditions of wartime. He in turn was inspired by America’s Federal Arts Project which was designed to give artists employment during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Over 1500 works were eventually produced by 97 artists, of whom 63 were specially commissioned. At the time the collection had a propaganda role, intended to boost national morale by celebrating Britain’s landscapes and heritage. Three exhibitions were held during the war at the National Gallery, and pictures from the collection were sent on touring exhibitions and to galleries all around the country. After the war, the whole collection was given to the V&A by the Pilgrim Trust in 1949, and it was documented in a four volume catalogue published between 1946 and 1949. For many years the majority of the collection was on loan to councils and record offices in each county, until recalled by the V&A around 1990. The pictures now form a memorial to the war effort, and a unique record of their time.

Historical significance: This somewhat nostalgic (albeit slightly caricatured) scene is one of a number of Recording Britain pictures implying the threat to 'Old England' coming from England itself.
Historical context
Market-day scenes like this, once typical in towns like Braintree, would become rare in the postwar era.
Subjects depicted
Places depicted
Summary
Walter Bayes was fairly unique among the artists involved in the Recording Britain scheme in his interest in the human figure. This scene of market-day drinkers in a Braintree pub, with its slightly caricatured drinkers and scowling blonde barmaid, is characteristic of his sharp observation of human foible. Despite the satirical depiction of the pub's denizens, this is an image of nostalgia for tradition about to be lost: such scenes would become rare following the war.
Bibliographic references
  • Catalogue of Drawings in the 'Recording Britain' Collection given by the Pilgrim Trust to the Victoria and Albert Museum published by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prints, Drawings and Paintings Department, 1951.
  • Palmer, Arnold, ed. Recording Britain. London: Oxford University Press, 1946-49. Vol 2: Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Northhamptonshire and Rutlandshire, Norfolk, Yorkshire. p.1.
Collection
Accession number
E.1360-1949

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Record createdNovember 17, 2005
Record URL
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