Canaletto, 1697–1768, Venetian, active in Britain (1746–55)
Title:
Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor's Procession on the Thames
Date:
1747
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Frame: 43 5/8 x 56 x 3 inches (110.8 x 142.2 x 7.6 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Label on verso, upper left: “Painting in England, 17[...] - [...] | The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Richmond | Artist: Canaletto | Title: ‘The Lord Mayor’s Procession, | The Thames at Westminster Bridge’ | Medium: Oil on canvas <Loan No.:> | Cat. No. 13 | Insure for: Sales Price: | Lender: Mr. And Mrs. Paul Mellon | Address: Upperville, Virginia”; upper left: “K 531002 | [logo] | Allied Van Lines | 41 | PAT.No.3,489,433”; upper right: “Guildhall Art Gallery | Canaletto in England Exhibition | June - July 1959 | Title A View on the Thames, Looking Towards Westminster Abbey | Lent by His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry, | K.T.,G.C.V.O”
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.94
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
sailboats | river | festival | cathedral | flags | church | celebration | barges (ceremonial watercraft) | barges (flat-bottomed watercraft) | holiday | rowboats | event | commemoration | monument | procession | sloops (sailing vessels) | people | cityscape | ships | bridge (built work) | boats | Lord Mayor’s Day procession
Associated Places:
England | Westminster bridge | Thames | Europe | Greater London | Westminster | United Kingdom | City of Westminster | London
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Casanova - The Seduction of Europe (Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 2018-06-17 - 2018-10-08)Casanova - The Seduction of Europe (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2018-02-10 - 2018-05-20)Canaletto and the Conquest of Light (Hôtel de Caumont, Aix-en-Provence, France, 2015-05-06 - 2015-09-20)Hanover's Rulers on the British Throne 1714 - 1837 (Niedersachsische Landesmuseum, 2014-05-01 - 2014-10-31)Royal River (National Maritime Museum, 2012-04-27 - 2012-09-09)Canaletto in England - A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755 (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-10-19 - 2006-12-31)Canaletto in England - A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755 (Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2007-01-24 - 2007-04-15)Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-09-27 - 2001-12-30)Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2002-02-01 - 2002-05-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)Canaletto (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989-10-30 - 1990-01-21)Georgian Canada - Conflict and Culture (Royal Ontario Museum, 1984-05-01 - 1984-11-01)The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18)
Publications:
Sir Geoffrey Agnew, Yale's 1700 Mellon Pictures, The Times (London), , April 28, 1977, p. 9, Times Digital ArchiveArt : The Definitive Visual History, DK Publishing, New York, 2018, p. 257, NX440 .A785 2018 Oversize (YCBA)Katharine Baetjer, Canaletto, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989, pp. 10, 224-26, no. 63, NJ18 C17 B24 1989 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Rosemary Baird, From Charitable Apothecary to Country Squire: The Garniers at Rookesbury, Hampshire, Georgian Group Journal, v. 25, The Group, London, p. 219, fig. 5, NA966 G46 (LC) (YCBA)John Baskett, Painting in England: 1700-1850: the Collection of English paintings formed by Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon : on Exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, until August 18th, , Connoisseur, Vol. 153, London, June 1963, p. 100, N1 C75 + (YCBA)Charles Beddington, Canaletto in England, a Venetian artist abroad, 1746-1755 , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2006, p. 101, no. 23, NJ18 C17 B45 2006 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Christie's sale catalogue : Important pictures by old masters and of the early English school : 13 July 1895, Christie's, July 13, 1895, p. 7, lot 26, Art Sales Catalogues OnlineW. G. Constable, Canaletto : Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1976, v. 2, p. 423, no. 435, pl. 80 (vol. 1), NJ18 C17 C65 1976 (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 48-49, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)Stephen Daniels, Fields of vision, landscape, imagery and national identity in England and the United States , Polity Press, Cambridge, 1994, p. 135, fig. 9, N8213 D35 1994 (YCBA)Celina Fox, Lord Mayor's coach., Vol. 11, The Museum of London, [London, 1990, p. 224, no. 63, N8217 C24 L67 1990 (YCBA)John T. Hayes, Panorama of the City and South London from Montagu House by Robert Griffier, Burlington Magazine, v.107,no.750, September, 1965, p.458, N1 B87 + (YCBA)Eleanor Hughes, Spreading Canvas : Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2016, p. 200, 201, fig. 107, ND 1373.G74 S67 2016 (YCBA)Frederick Ilchman, Casanova: The Seduction of Europe, MFA Publications, Boston, Massachusetts, p. 197, fig. 100, N6756 .C37 2017 (LC) (YCBA)Alex Kidson, Earlier British paintings in the Walker Art Gallery and Sudley House, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2012, p.157, fig. 65, ND466 .K537 2012 (YCBA)Rozena Anna Kowalczyk, Canaletto : Rome, Londres, Venise : le triomphe de la lumie`re / ouvrage publie´ sous la direction scientifique de Madame Boz?ena Anna Kowalczyk, a` l'occasion de l'exposition au Centre d'art de l'hotel de Caumont, du 6 mai au 13 septembre 2015, Fonds Mercator, Bruxelles, 2015, pp. 130-31, 134-35, 210, cat. no. 26, NJ18.C17 C356 2015 OVERSIZE (YCBA)J. G. Links, Canaletto and Old Westminster:, a City in the Making , Apollo, v. 135, no. 363, May 1992, p. 289, pl. II, N1 A54 + (YCBA)J. G. Links, Canaletto in England, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, v. 129, no. 5297, April, 1981, pp. 298-308, U10 R81 (LSF - MUDD)J. G. Links, Canaletto, Phaidon, London, 1994, pp. 165- 167, no. 139, NJ18 C17 L54 1994 (YCBA)J. G. Links, Canaletto, Phaidon, Oxford [Oxfordshire], 1982, pp. 148-51, no. 135, NJ18 C17 L54+ Oversize (YCBA)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 70, no. 22, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)National Gallery of Art, Painting in Georgian England from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1970, p. 2, ND488 P25 (YCBA)Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 43 (v.1), no. 13, pl. 41, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA)J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 53, 111, no. 104, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA)Harley Preston, London and the Thames ; Paintings of Three Centuries, , National Maritime Museum, London, 1977, no. 13, N8214.5 G7 P74 (YCBA)Eduard Safarik, Canaletto's View of London., Spring Books, London, 1961, pp. 18-19, fig. 2, NJ18 C17 S24+ (YCBA)Osbert Sitwell, Canaletto, Creative Art, 5, October, 1929, pp. 697-704, J10 C86 + (Haas Arts Library Special CollectionsRoxane Sperber, Canaletto's Colour : the inspiration and implications of changing grounds, pigments and paint applications in the artist's English period, British Art Studies, Issue 2, Spring 2016, pages are unnumbered, figs. 1, 8, 25, 26, 51, Available Online (Orbis) http://dx.doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-02/rsperber-jstengerDavid Starkey, Royal river, power, pageantry and the Thames , Scala Books, London, England, 2012, pp. 31, 78-79, 88-89, no, 48, DA670 T2 R69 2012 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)James Taylor, Marine painting, images of sail, sea and shore , Studio Editions, London, 1995, p. 52, ND1370 T27 1995 + (YCBA)View through an Arch of Westminster Bridge, Bulletin of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, v.8, no. 2, 1951, pp. 697-704, J421 Ob2D (LSF)Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Paul Mellon and collection., Vogue, vol.141,no. 9, May 1963, pp. 130, 131, V 2338 Original journal aricle also available TT500 V7 HAASMalcolm Warner, Great British paintings from American collections : Holbein to Hockney, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, p. 77, no. 11, ND464 W27 2001 (YCBA)Malcolm Warner, The image of London, views by travellers and emigrés 1550-1920 , Trefoil Publications, London, 1987, p. 33, fig. 10, N8214.5 G7 W2 (YCBA)Donald Blake Webster, Georgian Canada, conflict and culture, 1745-1820 , Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, 1984, pp. 42-3, no. 1, N6546 O6 W42 (YCBA)Westminster Bridge Under Construction, from the South East, Art & Artists, v. 12, September, 1977, p. 26, J10 Ar699 + (LSF - MUDD)
Gallery Label:
This view on the Thames commemorates two important civic events: the annual river festivities honoring Lord Mayor's Day, and the completion of Westminster Bridge. When Canaletto painted the work in 1747, the bridge was in fact still under construction (it was not opened until three years later), and this part of the scene is largely imaginary. The project was subject both to delays and controversy. The city's only existing bridge was the old London Bridge, and the building of a new one was vehemently opposed by groups such as the watermen (ferry operators), who regarded it as an unfair threat to their livelihoods. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005