Eau de Robec, Rouen

This drawing c.1830s attributed to Joseph Nash OWS (1809–1878) is a jostling, visual feast of Norman architecture and human activity along the Eau de Robec in Rouen. Nash was a leading architectural draughtsman, lithographer and illustrator of historic buildings; here he fills the picture plane with the street's half-timbered facades and decorated shop fronts, and brings the scene to life with all manner of figures—market sellers, men and women in traditional Normandy dress, children, dogs and horses. At the time the Eau de Robec stream flowed along the street beneath a multitude of bridges, serving the drapers and dyers who lived in the area and would wash their hands in the water, turning it various shades of blue, yellow or purple. The stream was canalised in the 1930s.