This weekend tweets have been doing the rounds re Federico Lloveras Herrera’s artwork depicting Little Venice.
The painting was sold at the De Vuyst ‘Old Masters, Modern & Contemporary Art’ auction in 2013.
Its a lovely painting that was done during a very important interim period at Little Venice, as will be explained below.
Theres two bits of important information according to Maida Vale Muse. The painting’s sale price was $2975. It was originally done in 1958. That would be the interim year I am going to discuss next. First, the towpath had been widened and made solid. Prior to that it had been a muddy sort of towpath (as discussed elsewhere on London Canals site.) The reason for the new towpath surface clearly had its origins in the earliest Little Venice boat shows of the late 1950s.
Second, Herreras did his painting just before the wholesale demolition of dozens of historic houses along the canal in Little Venice. Many of those houses stood along the canal between Westbourne Green and Beauchamp Lodge and these included a row of houses similar to those that remain along the canal further up at Harrow Road. These were all replaced by the present flats on Warwick Crescent and Delamere Terrace.
Herrera (1912-1983) was a resident of Barcelona. Its no mystery really why Herrera came here to the painting, Little Venice attracts a lot of famous painters and has a considerable touristic reputation.
