.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Patrick Whitehouse, the author and steam railway preservationist, commissioned The Lickey Incline directly from the artist in the 1960s.
The Lickey Incline lies between Birmingham and Gloucester and is the most famous gradient in England. As such, it posed major operating difficulties during the steam era. The engine depicted in the present work is LMS Jubilee Kolaphur - an engine still in operation on a private line in England today - and which Patrick Whitehouse had bought as a wreck and restored at the Tyseley Railway Museum in Birmingham (which he had founded). The Kolaphur was one of the few engines which was strong enough to pull a passenger train up the infamous Lickey Incline without needing assistance from another engine.
The Lickey Incline was painted on site and from a photograph taken by Patrick Whitehouse, a renowned railway photographer. The two children depicted in the lower left corner are the son and daughter of Patrick Whitehouse.
The Lickey Incline lies between Birmingham and Gloucester and is the most famous gradient in England. As such, it posed major operating difficulties during the steam era. The engine depicted in the present work is LMS Jubilee Kolaphur - an engine still in operation on a private line in England today - and which Patrick Whitehouse had bought as a wreck and restored at the Tyseley Railway Museum in Birmingham (which he had founded). The Kolaphur was one of the few engines which was strong enough to pull a passenger train up the infamous Lickey Incline without needing assistance from another engine.
The Lickey Incline was painted on site and from a photograph taken by Patrick Whitehouse, a renowned railway photographer. The two children depicted in the lower left corner are the son and daughter of Patrick Whitehouse.