Reading from Caversham
Reading from Caversham Hill, about 1841, Edmund John Niemann, oil on canvas, REDMG: 2023.85.1, Reading Foundation for Art collection, Sidney Gold legacy. Copyright: the artist. Photo: Reading Museum, Reading Borough Council
Edmund John Niemann (1813–1876) was celebrated during his lifetime for his accurate but Romantic landscapes.
The painting can be dated precisely to a time between the railway arriving in Reading in 1840 and Reading Gaol being built in 1842.
At the time Niemann was working for local publisher John Snare, painting views of the rapidly developing town. In 1843 Snare went on to publish The Environs of Reading, an early guidebook for walkers, which included one of Niemann’s views.
The work reflects the rapid increase in the numbers of visitors coming to the town by train and enjoy the surrounding countryside in their newly acquired leisure time.
Can you spot the early steam train approaching from the right and, if you follow the line of the railway embankment, the glazed roof of the new Reading station with more smoke? What about the Abbey Ruins to the left?
