The Quay, Exeter

This may have been painted during a visit Piper made to Devon in 1936. He published some pictures of East Devon cottage in a similar style for ‘Colour in the Picturesque Village’ in Architectural Review, vol 79. This image was published in ‘Warmth in the West’ for Architectural Review, vol 96, 1944 and so the image might have been made shortly prior to that. The Quay, Exeter uses watercolour and collage to depict some of the buildings in this part of Exeter. Prominent in the picture is the Custom House, the oldest extant such building in the country, and a place that was at the centre of Exeter’s woollen cloth export trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. The image was published as the central image in an article entitled ‘Warmth in the West’ for Architectural Review, vol 96, 1944, but it is possible that the work was made on an earlier trip to Devon.Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund, V&A Purchase Grant Fund and Friends of Exeter Museums & Art Gallery.