The Thames 

Muirhead Bone made this drawing of the Thames with graphite on paper, and these humble materials are essential to its effect. Look closely at the way Bone has used his pencil. See the speed of the marks, the quick, light strokes suggesting a scene in constant motion. Notice how the soft, granular quality of graphite lends itself to rendering a hazy industrial atmosphere, with all the chimneys and smoke of London’s working river. Bone’s technique emphasizes immediacy. His work shares an aesthetic with architectural renderings and engineering drawings, but the Thames is no clinical study. It is a study of a place defined by labor and industry. In this drawing, Bone captured not just a view, but a fleeting moment in the life of London. Appreciating how the drawing was made – the specific use of graphite, the artist’s technique, and the scene itself – allows us to move beyond the surface and understand its deeper social and cultural significance.