Excavating for Central Hall, Westminster
1876 to 1900
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
pen and blue ink with blue wash
Dimensions
overall: 38.2 x 28 cm (15 1/16 x 11 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.1507
Art Historical Context
**Excavating for Central Hall, Westminster** by Sir Muirhead Bone captures a pivotal moment in London's urban transformation. Created between 1876 and 1900, this drawing depicts the gritty excavation work for what would become Westminster Central Hall, a landmark Methodist chapel near the Houses of Parliament. Bone, a renowned Scottish artist celebrated for his precise architectural renderings, immortalizes the labor-intensive process amid Victorian London's rapid modernization, highlighting the era's blend of industrial ambition and historic reverence. Rendered in pen and blue ink with blue ...
About the Artist
Sir Muirhead Bone
Sir Muirhead Bone (1876–1953), born David Muirhead Bone in Partick, Glasgow, to a journalist father and descended from a family of printers, showed early artistic promise. Apprenticed at fourteen first as a porcelain painter and then as an architect's draughtsman for four years, he honed his draughtsmanship while attending evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art under teachers Archibald Kay a...