The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the Blackburn Exchange by Vladimir Sherwood, 1863

The Russian painter Vladimir Shervud (1833-97), known in England as William Sherwood, came to Blackburn at the invitation of John Charles Dickinson, the son of William Dickinson, a local early 19th century loom manufacturers who played a prominent role in the development of the Lancashire Loom. Sherwood lived at 7 Princes Street, off King Street.

This picture shows the laying of the foundation stone of the Blackburn Cotton Exchange on 10th March 1863, the same day as the wedding of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII)to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Sherwood spent the following two years producing the picture we now see, painting portraits of the eminent Blackburn people who had been present at the event, including William Dickinson and his son.

He had already painted a similar sort of picture showing the celebrations in Church Street, Preston after the Tory election victory 1862 (now in the Harris Museum). The Blackburn picture, which it seems was the very first acquired by the Museum, for the princely sum of £17/9/6 in 1875. After this it somehow ended up in the Technical College, from where it was transferred in 1968. It measures 6 x 8 feet and is the biggest picture in the collection.

In 1867 Sherwood returned to Russia, where he was elected to the Moscow Academy in 1872 and became art tutor to the Tsar’s children. Also an architect, he designed the Moscow History Museum in Red Square (1883) and the Memorial to the Heroes of Plevna in Ilyinskiye Gates Square, put up in 1877 in memory of the Russian grenadiers who fell in the battles near Plevna liberating Bulgaria from the Turks.

The Blackburn Cotton Exchange opened in 1865. It was never a great success, as the railway to Manchester offered easy access to the much more important Manchester Exchange. Left incomplete, it eventually became a cinema, which closed some years ago and since 2015 is undergoing extensive repairs by the charity, Re:Source, with a view to becoming a community venue.