Lot 48: Robert Thomas Landells (1833-1877)

Foregate, Strand, Entrance to Boswell Court, showing demolition work in progress prior to the building of the New Law Courts signed with initials and dated 'RL/68' (lower right) oil on canvas 11 x 9 1/8 in. (27.9 x 23.2 cm.) PROVENANCE H. Cockle: Christie's London, 20 November 1970, lot 271, (120 gns.) NOTES Just beyond the Temple Bar on the Strand are G.E.Street's Royal Courts of Justice, known as the Law Courts. London's last great Gothic public building, it was opened by Queen Victoria in 1884 when the legal practitioners relocated from Westminster Hall. A slum had been cleared to make way for it. Landells depicts Londoners grouped around the shadowy entrance to Boswell Court, observing the hectic process of instruction and destruction taking place on the sunlit street.