The Embankment, Westminster, 1934

Donald Chisholm Towner (1903 - 1985)

RA Collection: Art

Towner was a painter and ceramics expert born in Eastbourne, Sussex. His published books included The Leeds Potter (1963), Creamware (1978) as well as an autobiography, Reflections, in 1979. As well as painting subjects around Hamstead, where he lived, he also designed posters in the 1950s for The Travel Association.

This cityscape shows a hazy view of the embankment from Cleopatra’s needle down towards the Houses of Parliament. The artist chose a high view point which gives grandeur to the sweep of the Thames while still managing to convey details of the busy city with barges going down the river, buses on the roads and people walking through Victoria Embankment Gardens.