John PiperBritish, 1903–1992The Bridge at Tyringham, Buckinghamshire
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “The Bridge at Tyringham, Buckinghamshire” now? Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
In 1940 the Ministry of Labour, in association with the Pilgrim Trust, established a project to commission artists to provide a record of the changing face of Britain. This remarkably ambitious scheme was known as 'Recording Britain'. The secretary of the Central Institute of Art and Design recommended in 1939 that 'artists should be appointed to make drawings, paintings and prints at the war fronts, in factories, workshops, shipyards and on the land, and of the changed life of the towns and villages, thus making a permanent record of life during the war which would be a memorial to the national effort, and of particular local value'. The impetus behind the project was the threat of extensive bomb damage during the Second World War, particularly in the cities but also in the countryside.
Read on
Early work by John Piper (1903-1992) was abstract in style. By the late 1930s he had begun designing for the theatre. His watercolours for 'Recording Britain' of church interiors, landscape gardens and country house parks have, as in this painting, the dramatic quality of stage scenery. Tyringham in Buckinghamshire was designed by the architect Sir John Soane and built between 1793 and 1797.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Details
- Accession number
- E.1159-1949
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
