Signed l.r.: Kenneth Rowntree

Oil on canvas, 49.5 by 32 cm

Exhibited: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, The Oxford Barges, May 1956; Bear Lane

Gallery, Oxford, February 1959, no.9

Rowntree's paintings of Oxford barges were shown at the Ashmolean Museum in May 1956.  The pictures were  commissioned in 1956 by J.M Richards of the Architectural Review, to accompany an article written by Diana Rowntree. Alan Powers has written:

“.... (his) affection for innocent decoration played an active role in Rowntree’s work when he painted the Oxford College Barges, originally converted from London Livery Company Thames barges into slightly baroque viewing stations for college ‘bumps’, but by this time rapidly decaying. The paintings were used to illustrate an article by Diana in the Architectural Review in July 1956, arguing for a more sensitive approach to the planning of boathouse buildings along the Isis, and shown at the Ashmolean Museum, helping to stir an effort to save the barges…” quoted in Kenneth Rowntree A Centenary Exhibition, Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art, 2015, p 35.