Leon Kossoff’s lively etching A Street in Willesden is one of several street scenes the artist made of the view looking north from the bottom of Dudden Hill Lane, not far from Roundwood Park in north London. A snapshot of the bustling urban everyday, the etching depicts multiple figures as they go about their daily lives, while the print’s namesake couple stride through the foreground together with their pet dog. The subject matter is personal, presenting Kossoff’s local area; the artist’s wife, Rosalind, posed for the figure who sits on the bench, contently people-watching as the world goes by around her. In this sense, Kossoff granted significance to his supposedly mundane, ordinary local surroundings, and in doing so he immortalised a distinct moment in time among the endlessly evolving urban landscape. For instance, behind the couple we see the pitched roof of the Dudden Hill Community Centre, which has since been demolished. Quintessentially Kossoff, A Street in Willesden vividly captures the essence of his hometown locale with intimate familiarity, while also poignantly evoking the ubiquitous atmosphere of an undetermined urban landscape.
