London Etchings by Nathaniel Kornbluth
I feel sure that our colleagues at Tower Hamlets Archives (and The Gentle Author, see below) would eagerly agree with us in nominating Nathaniel Kornbluth (1914-1997) as a lesser known London artist to be explored and treasured. And his marvellous etchings of east London and back street north London can provide encouragement to all artists whose main working life has had to be outside of their art interests.
Nathaniel maintained a lifelong interest in art and the making of London prints despite being fully engaged in the running of an East London clothing business. When Jeremy Smith met and interviewed him in 1988 at the time of a display of his work at Guildhall Library he was brimming with enthusiasm for images of all kinds (less so for the world of men’s tailoring).
The Kornbluth business was located on Whitechapel High Street almost opposite the Whitechapel Art Gallery and a short distance from the famous Gardiner’s department store. It can be seen in our 1961 photograph (below) on London Picture Archive ref: 121978.
The young Nathaniel Kornbluth was already drawing the streets of the area and local Thameside scenes before he was absorbed fully into the business of the family firm. Still in his teens, attending evening classes at the Hackney Technical Institute gave him the chance to make and print his first etchings, and he was immediately sure that he found his ideal medium. Some of his prints were included in the East End Academy exhibition held at Whitechapel Art Gallery - precursor to the London Open that still takes place, at the same venue.
We reproduce here (below) just portion of his etching of Bow Creek made in 1934, as an appetiser of his work. If, as we hope, we can make contact and safely establish copyright permission from his family we look forward to being able to show many more.
The Gentle Author included Kornbluth in his 2017 book 'East End Vernacular, artists who painted London’s East End streets' and on his brilliant Spitalfields Life web pages names him as one of his favourites. Many of Nathaniel’s subjects are of course from this area – in the immediate vicinity of the Kornbluth wholesale business. Our 1961 photograph of the street, itself full of interest, is by Tony Mann a photographer employed extensively by the GLC and very well represented at LMA. The Gardner’s Corner department store, with its distinctive clock tower, burned to the ground in 1972 and the whole block has since seen rebuilding, several times over.
Bibliography:
Print Quarterly article ‘The London Etchings of Nathaniel Kornbluth’, September 1988