Bishop Lloyd’s Palace, inspired by Louise Rayner

Bishop Lloyd’s Palace

Bishop Lloyd’s Palace : this painting is inspired by Louise Rayner’s paintings of Chester from the 1800s.

One of a series of paintings where Julie Colclough has been recreating the same views, using similar angles and artistic licence. This has been a very interesting project to understand how Louise Rayner slightly altered the position or angle of buildings to improve the composition, a tradition practised by many artists such as Turner.

Our gallery is situated on Watergate Row, just to the right of Bishop Lloyd’s Palace.

• Original painting on canvas, framed £800.
• Limited edition Fine Art giclee prints also available (small edition of 75) from £95 unframed.

Visit the gallery or contact us to reserve, order or enquire about this and other paintings in the series.

Louise Rayner painted this view of Watergate Street several times, each one populated by different people and capturing a different atmosphere. Julie Colclough’s paintings in this series also capture local people and present day residents of the Rows.

One of Louise Rayner’s Watergate Street paintings was sold by Bonham’s with the following interesting notes:

LOUISE J. RAYNER (BRITISH, 1832-1924) ‘Watergate Street, Chester, looking east towards the Cross. The Eastgate in the distance and Bishop Lloyd’s House on the right’
signed ‘Louise Rayner’ (lower left)

• The richly carved wooden facade of Bishop Lloyd’s Palace is one of the jewels of the Rows of Chester. The panels are carved with scenes from the Bible, and are a striking continuation of the medieval practice of decorating buildings and their furnishings with a mass of gargoyles, statuary and decorative foliage and beasties.
• The date of 1615 is carved into one of the panels. The painting shows the palace prior to its restoration fo 1899-1900 by Thomas Meakin Lockwood, when the Georgian sash window were replaced by the present leaded lights.

It is possible to visit Bishop Lloyd’s Palace during open days held by the Civic Trust. Our building shares some similar architectural features inside and we wish we could learn more about the builders and carpenters who worked here centuries ago.

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