Location: Digne, France
Subject: Streetscape
Medium: Watercolour
Date: 1920s
Signature: Knighton Hammond
Dimensions: 45 cm x 61 cm
As with many of K-H’s continental watercolours themes are woven into this painting. One can appreciate the importance of the architectural focal point, in this case the façade of the tall buildings dominating the town square in Digne, the importance of the clusters of figures, and the fact that, in each part of the composition, a human story is being told.
The facades of the buildings are in shade but painted such that they are not just lacking light in their original colour but are in colours of a different value – very typical of K-H’s Impressionist style when it came to shadow. Indeed, there is good interplay between light and shade in the picture.
The figures are painted with great spontaneity and give movement to the composition.
This picture clearly demonstrates the artist was a passionate follower and admirer of the Impressionist movement, probably thanks to the teaching of Adolphe Valette at Manchester Municipal School of Art. He was a late Impressionist applying its principles several years after its creation.