South Back of Canongate

Category

Library Item

Item no

19198

Title

South Back of Canongate

Artist / maker

Channing, William

Date

1849

Size

26.1 x 18.5 cm

Type

Pen work; Wash drawing

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The drawing depicts the south back of Canongate.
The Canongate is the section of Edinburgh's Royal Mile running from the junction with Jeffrey Street to a roundabout almost immediately outside Holyrood Palace.

William Channing's drawings and paintings from the bound volume of his 'Sketches in Edinburgh', give an artist's impression of tenement life in the mid 19th century. His drawings are glimpses into the past down the narrow Closes and alleyways of the Old Town. We see higgledy-piggledy houses and tenements towering skywards, laundry hanging from windows across the walkways and local characters talking in the streets.

Channing's delightful sketches are particularly valued for their representation of the architectural elements and details of buildings and closes now much changed or long since disappeared.

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