View of London from Greenwich

Joseph Mallord William Turner

1825 · Watercolor and ink and traces of graphite · Drawings and Prints

Turner here offers a panorama of greater London as seen from Greenwich Park, looking down towards the Naval Hospital designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the river Thames, and the distant city. The foreground is littered with maps and globes, with a woman holding up two plans for a naval pensioner with spectacles and crutches to inspect–a reference to England's past. Slightly behind, a man dressed in a fashionably tall top hat and yellow gloves raises his hands to celebrate the burgeoning present. Finally, a third figure further down the hill peers through a telescope at steam boats racing past sailing ships on the river–a hint at the future. The watercolor belongs to a group that the artist made around 1825, devoted to the nation's capital city. The intent was to reproduce the series as prints but the project was never realized.

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

1825

Medium

Watercolor and ink and traces of graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Alexandrine Sinsheimer, 1958