We are pleased to announce that a collection of watercolours of the Suburb made in the 1920s is now available to browse online via the HGS Heritage virtual museum.
The collection of around 40 images shows various Suburb scenes painted between 1923-1925 by William Isaac Aston, a mathematical instrument maker who lived on the Suburb at the time. The collection is dedicated to Aston’s son A. Ewart Aston, who was an architect to the Hampstead Garden Suburb Tenants, and has around fifty Suburb properties to his name.
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The paintings portray the Suburb at various times of the year, and the majority are easily recognisable almost one hundred years on. Despite the inevitable softness of the watercolour medium, Aston had an eye for detail and his paintings stand up to close scrutiny. The collection also showcases Aston’s skill for representing all seasons, with the verdant leaves, pink blossoms and murky woodland familiar to all who love the Suburb.
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As the hand-bound album of watercolours is rather delicate, it has not been possible to make them available for public display since they were purchased by the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust until now. The purpose of the virtual museum is to make Suburb-related artefacts accessible to everyone, and this makes it the perfect place to display the Aston watercolours.
We have made high resolution scans of the 8×6″ paintings, and the virtual museum website allows visitors to click into and zoom in on each image to see them in far greater detail than would be possible in a physical display.
The collection of Aston watercolours is available on the HGS Heritage virtual museum at this address: https://hgsheritage.org.uk/Detail/collections/WIAW001