Lot Essay
This view was a favourite with Marlow, and he painted it several times. A version of the present picture, and of the same size, is in the Guildhall Art Gallery, and another is at Yale; oval variations are in the collection of the Corporation of London and, at Castle Howard. There are also drawings and a watercolour of the view, and a preliminary sketch for this composition is in an album of London drawings by the artist in the British Museum. Marlow exhibited views of the Bridge at the Society of Artists in 1772 and 1774, both times together with a companion picture of Westminster Bridge; these paintings are most probably those at Castle Howard and at the Guildhall.