Raymond McIntyre
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1879, d.1933
London Street With Shadows
- c. 1919
- Oil on canvas
- Presented by the McIntyre Family, 1951
- 705 x 610mm
- 69/98
Location: Burdon Family Gallery
Tags: apartments, blue (color), buildings (structures), canopies (structural elements), fences, people (agents), shadows, signs (declatory or advertising artifacts), stores, urban landscapes
Raymond McIntyre had gravitated towards painting on small wooden panels early in his career in Ōtautahi Christchurch, a choice of scale he continued in London. This format seems suited to his restrained aesthetic and also reflected his quiet, reserved nature. Living in small London flats that doubled as studio space would no doubt have also dictated the scale of works he was able to paint. London Street with Shadows is one of his larger paintings, for which he switched to canvas. It depicts a bustling Chelsea street – perhaps Earls Court Road or Redcliffe Gardens – and, with its spontaneous, almost calligraphic brushwork, reveals the Post-Impressionist influences of the French Fauves such as Henri Matisse and Raoul Dufy.
(Raymond McIntyre:A Modernist View, 25 October 2025 – 8 March 2026)
Exhibition History
New Dawn Fades, 10 November 2018 – 23 February 2020
By 1919, when this work was made, the Christchurch painter Raymond McIntyre had been living and working in London for a decade and the modern post-impressionist style he had adopted in his painting is evident. The view is thought to be from his studio window in the fashionable suburb of Chelsea, and McIntyre captures the energy of the busy street below with spontaneous, calligraphic brushwork.
(New Dawn Fades, November 2018)
It is possible this is a street in Chelsea, which was a popular district for people with an interest in the arts and where Raymond McIntyre had a studio flat. It is one of a series of London street scenes he painted between 1911 and 1926. A Post-Impressionist work, it shows the influence on McIntyre of the Fauve artists Raoul Dufy (1877- 1953) and Henri Matisse (1869 -1954) whose work he became familiar with in London. He was also influenced by Japanese art.
Born in Christchurch, McIntyre was awarded a bronze medal for a life study when he was a student at the Canterbury College School of Art. He also studied as a private pupil under Petrus van der Velden (1837-1913)*. McIntyre arrived in London in 1909 and studied at the London City Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1911 he began a long association exhibiting with the Goupil Gallery, then the leading international contemporary art gallery in London. McIntyre died suddenly, aged 54.
(Label date unknown)
*This is now known to be incorrect. See for example the letter by Leonard Booth in 'The Press', 14 September 1972, Page 16.