London from Parliament Hill, Hampstead

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Department for International Trade, Old Admiralty Building

This view from Parliament Hill, on Hampstead Heath, looks across treetops, rooftops and factory chimneys, towards the familiar silhouette of St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance. The shadowy, misty view of the City in the background contrasts with the peace of Hampstead Heath, with its rich autumn colours. The scene evokes a sense of calm, in stark contrast to the turmoil of the aerial bombing campaigns that had centered on London from December 1914 through to August 1918.

On 11 November 1918, at about the time Carline painted this work, the Armistice was agreed and signed between Germany and the Allied Powers. This brought an end to the First World War, a conflict that had resulted in immense loss of life and destruction around the globe. As news of the end of the War was relayed, the people of Europe celebrated joyfully. An account of the celebrations in London was published the next day in The Daily Mirror: 

London went wild with delight when the great news came through yesterday. Bells burst forth into joyful chimes, maroons were exploded, bands paraded the streets followed by cheering crowds of soldiers and civilians and London generally gave itself up wholeheartedly to rejoicing.

Lincoln-born George F. Carline, portrait and landscape artist, worked in both watercolour and oils. He studied at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art in London and in Antwerp and Paris. He later exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institution. In 1896, an exhibition of 59 of his paintings titled ‘The Home of our English Wild Flowers’ was held at the Dowdeswell Galleries in London. Carline died in Assisi, Italy, in 1920. All three of his children were also artists. Notably, his son Richard, who was a landscape and figure painter and served as an official war artist during World War I, in Palestine, Persia and India. His daughter, Hilda, is best remembered as the first wife of painter Stanley Spencer, whom she married in 1925.

Places

England, London, Hampstead Heath, Parliament Hill

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, grass, tree, woodland, spire, dome, chimney

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

George F Carline (1855 - 1920)

Title

London from Parliament Hill, Hampstead

Date

1918

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 100.00 cm, width: 125.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Richard Carline, September 1979

Inscription

signed & dated br; verso: London from Parliament Hill Hampstead / George Carline 1918

GAC number

14826