Paddle steamer Britannie - Bristol Quay 1938

Curator: Well, immediately the cool, almost desaturated palette gives the scene a kind of understated elegance. And yet, that chimney looms with such monumental force! Editor: That’s right. We are looking at “Paddle Steamer Britannie – Bristol Quay,” a watercolour completed by Eric Ravilious in 1938. It offers a fascinating view into a specific moment in the port city’s history. Curator: I'm struck by how the wheel reads almost like a sun disc, a rotating deity in service of industry. What do the boats of this period reveal about our historical aspirations? Editor: These steamers speak to Bristol’s industrial power at this time, especially the interwar years and its prominent position on trade routes throughout the British Empire. Ravilious's work often highlights the everyday aesthetic of British infrastructure. Here, it almost has the presence of a civic monument. Curator: I am so curious about how Ravilious positions the lone figure so far from our view. It's almost a romantic gesture to hide the individual and their relation to machine. What does that separation point to for you? Editor: Precisely! This aesthetic, this depiction of working-class subjects as diminutive alongside vast systems, gained prominence at this time across media to visually align individuals to industry. Here Ravilious positions industry and Britannia as a visual shorthand for civic duty. Curator: And yet I'm drawn to consider this lone individual on the steamer almost as a psychopomp in passage; are they being transported across into modernity? I love that we, the viewers, become witness to it. Editor: Yes! It is hard to consider where that moment ends as society progressed into a World War, and how Britain positioned industry through propaganda. Thinking of Ravilious's images of this time allows us to reflect on that period and the politics of this landscape in this painting. Curator: What a fitting painting to meditate on at this moment, both a symbol and an allegory of those tides that turn to bring in an unforeseen future. Editor: Absolutely. And considering its public facing qualities, "Paddle Steamer Britannie" gives us a lot to consider about our contemporary moment, as well.