Westminster Bridge from the North
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Victoria and Albert Museum
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
View of Westminster Bridge depicts Old Westminster Bridge, built between 1739-47 and officially opened in 1750, and dates to the mid-18th century. It is similar to a View of Westminster Bridge, by Joseph Nicholls (active 1726-55), in the University of Greenwich collection. However, it probably derives from Westminster Bridge from the North with the Lord Mayor’s Procession on the Thames, 29 October 1746, dated 1747, by Giovanni Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768), in the Yale Center for British Art. The V&A painting adopts a similar view point to Canaletto’s work high above the water, showing both banks, and therefore impossible to see in reality - an archaic way of depicting a bridge, drawing upon the tradition in 17th-century Dutch painting of showing a bridge end-to-end.
Read on
Italian artists, including Canaletto, injected a note of renewed vigour into the painting of London views when they arrived in the British capital in the mid-18th century and such paintings were in considerable demand, and probably led to the market for views by lesser artists. The V&A painting is an example of this type.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- P.12-1952
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum: the museum's own open data · fetched 11 days ago
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
