The Building of the Manchester Ship Canal

Benjamin Williams Leader 1831 - 1923

Summary

Industrial scene depicting the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. In the foreground, building works with a stone tower and wooden hut can be seen to the right. The Penine hills are on the horizon, and to the left of the building works, a number of large ships are in the distance. There are indications of impressionist influence especially in the walled sections of the construction, where the surface seems mottled with daubs of paint. The colours are rich and vibrant in blue, white, and red with rich brown ochre representing the small walled valley within which the construction works are taking place.

Display Label

The Building of the Manchester Ship Canal 1891 Benjamin Williams Leader 1831-1923 Oil on board Fauziya Johnson, Artist, Curator, Producer, Co-director ROOT-ed zine, (‘representing, inspiring people of colour in the North West’) spoke about this painting at a Gallery event entitled What have we learned about work during COVID, and what needs to change?: This painting spoke to me about how the Government cares about external facades such as large corporate buildings, rather than the people who are homeless or on low wage/benefits. People will appear smaller than the ship canal. That goes without saying, but... people are just dashes of paint in comparison to the amount of time that’s taken to paint the canal and the lifeless infrastructures, so they appear to be more important than the people. Purchased from Christie’s Manchester, with assistance from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund 1991.59