Collins Street East from Queen Street, 1935
Pownall was known for his small paintings of London street scenes, capturing the unique atmosphere of the time when horse-drawn carriages and motor vehicles shared the streets, and gas lamps lit the city at night. His evocative depictions of twilight and nocturnal scenes are often compared to the works of John Atkinson Grimshaw and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, due to their impressionistic qualities.
After emigrating to Australia, Pownall arrived in Sydney before moving to Melbourne around 1914, where he settled in the St Kilda district in 1924. The Cowen Gallery at the State Library of Victoria holds two of his works, Bourke Street East and Collins Street, both painted around 1912.