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Story by Jack Foley
ART lovers
and fans of the River Thames are being invited to step back in time and view
Henley as it once was, as a smalltown without cars or crowds, in Henley
in the Frame - a new winter exhibition at the River & Rowing Museum,
from December 14.
The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to view this unique collection
of evocative watercolours by Lucy Cooper, which was presented to the town
in 1929, and which usually hang in the Mayor's Parlour at Henley Town Hall.
Her collection of paintings illustrate Henley and the lives of its residents
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and will be displayed side by
side at the exhibition with contemporary photographs of the same views by
Jaap Oepkes.
Born in 1853 as the second of five children, Lucy was brought up in a Victorian
middle-class family in Henley, where her father, John Cooper, was the local
solicitor and Town Clerk. John also took part in the first Henley Boat Race
in 1896, being the Cox of the winning boat.
In later years, Lucy's father and brother became involved in the organisation
of the Henley Royal Regatta and Lucy, herself, was also a keen amateur artist
and accomplished musician.
Lucy did not marry and lived together with her unmarried sister, Janet, in
a house behind the town hall. She died in 1929, aged 76.
The paintings span the years between 1888 and 1925 and capture the mood of
the era, with clear depiction of the businesses and shops that onc