Walter Greaves

This picture shows the last iteration of the traditional river festival of the Chelsea regatta which came to an end in 1871 with the construction of the Embankment. The regatta was the event of the year in old Chelsea village. Greaves described with great excitement his impressions of the day, ‘what with guns firing, flags flying, bands playing and the immense crowd of people, Chelsea was pretty lively... This regatta, like the other river races made a remarkably artistic display of colour especially as it took place on a fine summer’s day, with blue skies and white clouds.’

Greaves’ response to the regatta begat several versions: an oil, now in in the collection of Manchester City Art Gallery; his largest and finest etching under the tutelage of James Abbott McNeill Whistler; and a watercolour of the same view, but without the crowd. Both the oil and etching combine his charming, primitive style with the meticulous detail of Whistler’s Thames Set etchings. Unlike his earlier, untutored depiction of the boat race from the 1860s, now in the Tate collection, the result is one of Greaves’ most accomplished and complex works capturing ‘a vigorous, happy moment’.

Greaves’ life was subsumed by the Thames, Chelsea Reach and river life. Born at number 31 Cheyne Walk, his father was a boatbuilder, waterman and boatman to the artist William Turner. Later, Greaves’ connection with the industrial river-land, having trained as a shipwright and boatman, would facilitate his work and friendship with Whistler. Greaves and his brother met Whistler in 1863, and together they introduced the artist to the sights of the Thames, later becoming his studio assistants and protégés.