Omnibus Life in London

Last updated

William Maw Egley, Omnibus Life in London, 1859 OmnibusLife William Maw Egley1.jpg
William Maw Egley, Omnibus Life in London, 1859

Omnibus Life in London is an 1859 oil-on-canvas painting by British artist William Maw Egley. The work depicts the interior of a packed omnibus carriage. It is held by the Tate Gallery, in London.

It is a genre painting, showing a contemporary subject matter in modern dress, as became popular in the Victorian period. Egley's work may be inspired by paintings of cramped railway carriages by French painter Honoré Daumier.

The early omnibus was a horse-drawn carriage drawn along a set route, picking up and dropping off passengers as it went. It was introduced in London on 4 July 1829 and soon became a popular form of transport for the middle classes - the working class would not be able to afford the fare, and upper classes could afford their own vehicle or to hire a hackney carriage. The typical London omnibus was an enclosed and glazed carriage with four wheels, drawn by one or two horses. Passengers could sit on benches to either side inside, entering via a door at the rear, or climb up to exposed seats on the roof. A driver would ride at the front of the carriage, with a conductor assisting passengers to climb aboard or depart and taking fares at the rear.

Egley painted the interior of an omnibus carriage at a coachbuilder's yard in Paddington, showing a view from near the front of the carriage towards the rear door. A view of Westbourne Grove can be seen through the rear windows, near Egley's home at a chemist's shop on the corner of Hereford Road. The scene enables Egley to paint a variety of people crowded into the carriage. The passengers are forced together without regard to their social status and do their best to ignore avoid catching each other's eye. An elderly country woman with piles of luggage looks in concern at the plight of a well-dressed young mother (based on Egley's wife) with two children, who demurely averts her gaze; further back a city clerk sits with his cane. A young woman with parasol and fashionable crinoline is attempting to enter, with the conductor peering in to check if there is any space.

The painting measures 44.8 centimetres (17.6 in) by 41.9 centimetres (16.5 in), and has a distinctive quatrefoil frame. It was exhibited at the British Institution in 1859 and sold to William Jennings for 50 guineas (£52 10s). A version was engraved for the Illustrated London News in 1859. The painting was bequeathed to the Tate Gallery by Jenny Louisa Roberta Blaker in 1947, possibly from the collection of her brother Hugh Blaker (she also donated Modigliani's Le Petit Paysan to the Tate Gallery in 1941, and left The Ugly Duchess by Quentin Matsys to the National Gallery in 1847).

See also

Typical London omnibus, c.1902 First vehicle to cross Holborn Viaduct.jpg
Typical London omnibus, c.1902

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hackney carriage</span> Car for hire

A hackney or hackney carriage is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common sight on the streets of London. The hackney carriages carry a roof sign TAXI that can be illuminated to indicate their availability for passengers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hansom cab</span> Horse-drawn vehicle for hire

The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low centre of gravity for safe cornering. Hansom's original design was modified by John Chapman and several others to improve its practicability, but retained Hansom's name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Landseer</span> English painter and sculptor (1802–1873)

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. His best-known works are the lion sculptures at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

Events from the year 1859 in art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Shillibeer</span> Inventor of the London Omnibus

George Shillibeer was an English coachbuilder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brougham (carriage)</span> Type of horse-drawn carriage

A brougham is a 19th century four-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse. It was named after the politician and jurist Lord Brougham, who had this type of carriage built to his specification by London coachbuilder Robinson & Cook in 1838.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horse-drawn vehicle</span> Vehicle pulled one or more horses

A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport but are still in use today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Hancock</span> British inventor of steam-powered road vehicles (1799-1852)

Walter Hancock was an English inventor of the Victorian period. He is chiefly remembered for his steam-powered road vehicles, but also received a patent for preparing and cutting natural rubber into sheets. He was the younger brother of Thomas Hancock, the inventor of rubber mastication who is also claimed by some to be the inventor of rubber vulcanization.

<i>The Lady of Shalott</i> (painting) Painting by John William Waterhouse

The Lady of Shalott is a painting of 1888 by the English painter John William Waterhouse. It is a representation of the ending of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1832 poem of the same name. Waterhouse painted three versions of this character, in 1888, 1894 and 1915. It is one of his most famous works, which adopted much of the style of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, though Waterhouse was painting several decades after the Brotherhood split up during his early childhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coach (carriage)</span> Large four-wheeled closed carriage

A coach is a large, closed, four-wheeled, passenger-carrying vehicle or carriage usually drawn by two or more horses controlled by a coachman, a postilion, or both. A coach has doors in its sides and a front and a back seat inside. The driver has a raised seat in front of the carriage to allow better vision. It is often called a box, box seat, or coach box. There are many types of coaches depending on the vehicle's purpose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabriolet (carriage)</span> Light horse-drawn vehicle

A cabriolet is a light horse-drawn vehicle, with two wheels and a single horse. The carriage has a folding hood that can cover its two occupants, one of whom is the driver. It has a large rigid apron, upward-curving shafts, and usually a rear platform between the C springs for a groom. The design was developed in France in the eighteenth century and quickly replaced the heavier hackney carriage as the vehicle for hire of choice in Paris and London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horsebus</span> Horse-drawn passenger transport vehicle

A horse-bus or horse-drawn omnibus was a large, enclosed, and sprung horse-drawn vehicle used for passenger transport before the introduction of motor vehicles. It was mainly used in the late 19th century in both the United States and Europe, and was one of the most common means of transportation in cities. In a typical arrangement, two wooden benches along the sides of the passenger cabin held several sitting passengers facing each other. The driver sat on a separate, front-facing bench, typically in an elevated position outside the passengers' enclosed cabin. In the main age of horse buses, many of them were double-decker buses. On the upper deck, which was uncovered, the longitudinal benches were arranged back to back.

<i>Bigger Trees Near Warter</i> Painting by David Hockney

Bigger Trees Near Warter or ou Peinture en Plein Air pour l'age Post-Photographique is a large landscape painting by British artist David Hockney. Measuring 460 by 1,220 centimetres or 180 by 480 inches, it depicts a coppice near Warter, Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire and is the largest painting Hockney has completed.

<i>Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth</i> Painting by John Singer Sargent

Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth is an oil painting by John Singer Sargent, now in Tate Britain, in London. Painted in 1889, it depicts actress Ellen Terry in a famous performance as Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, wearing a green dress decorated with iridescent beetle wings. The play was produced by Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre, London, with Irving also playing Macbeth opposite Terry. Sargent attended the opening night on 29 December 1888 and was inspired to paint Terry's portrait almost immediately.

<i>The Derby Day</i> Painting by William Powell Frith

The Derby Day is a large oil painting showing a panoramic view of The Derby, painted by the English artist William Powell Frith over 15 months from 1856 to 1858. It has been described by Christie's as Frith's "undisputed masterpiece" and also "arguably the definitive example of Victorian modern-life genre."

<i>The Umbrellas</i> (Renoir) 19th-century painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The Umbrellas is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painted in two phases in the 1880s. It is owned by the National Gallery in London as part of the Lane Bequest but is displayed alternately in London and at the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. From May 2013 to 2019, it returned to Dublin for a six-year period. It is now in the National Gallery London.

<i>The Last Judgement</i> (Martin paintings) Triptych by John Martin

The Last Judgement is a triptych of oil paintings by the British artist John Martin, created in 1851–1853. The work comprises three separate paintings on a theme of the end of the world, inspired by the Book of Revelation. The paintings, The Plains of Heaven, The Last Judgement, and The Great Day of His Wrath, are generally considered to be among Martin's most important works, and have been described by some art critics as his masterpiece.

<i>The Wrestlers</i> (Etty) c. 1840 painting of two wrestlers by William Etty

The Wrestlers is an oil painting on millboard by English artist William Etty, painted around 1840 and currently in the York Art Gallery, in York, England. It depicts a wrestling match between a black man and a white man, both glistening with sweat and under an intense light emphasising their curves and musculature. While little documentation of the painting exists prior to 1947, it is likely that it was painted over a period of three evenings at the life class of the Royal Academy.

<i>The Bayswater Omnibus</i> 1895 painting by George William Joy

The Bayswater Omnibus is an 1895 oil painting by George William Joy. It has been part of the Museum of London's collection since 1966. The genre painting depicts a scene inside a horse-drawn omnibus of the London General Omnibus Company. Joy borrowed a bus from the company while he was working on his painting.

<i>Old Horse Guards</i> 1749 Painting by Canaletto

Old Horse Guards is a 1749 landscape painting by the Italian artist Canaletto. It depicts the view from St James's Park of the Horse Guards building in London. Built during the reign of Charles II it served as the headquarters of the British Army. At the time he painted it the existing building was due to be pulled down and replaced by the larger building designed by William Kent that still stands today. The painting offers a wider view of Whitehall in the mid-eighteenth century. On the right of the picture is the rear of Downing Street. It is also known by the longer title The Old Horse Guards from St James's Park.

References