Market Day, Canterbury 1920

Muirhead Bone made this ink wash drawing of Market Day, Canterbury, sometime in the early twentieth century. This bird’s-eye view of a bustling livestock market connects to broader themes of urbanization and rural life in England at the time. Bone’s skilled rendering creates meaning through the sheer density of marks used to depict the mass of people and animals. The drawing's perspective emphasizes the market's role as a social gathering place, not just a site of economic exchange. It suggests that even as urban centers grew, traditional market culture remained a vital part of community life. Bone made the drawing as Britain underwent significant social and economic changes, including shifts in agriculture and increasing industrialization. To fully understand drawings like this, we can consult sources such as period newspapers, market records, and social histories. By placing art in its institutional and social context, we see it as a product of specific times, not as some kind of universal aesthetic value.