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Lot Essay
The scene depicted here is that of the destruction of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Drury Lane Theatre in 1809, which Sheridan had completely rebuilt in 1794 with the architect Henry Holland. The distant conflagration is viewed from Cowbridge, Pimlico, looking North. The painting, of which another version of the same date is held in the Guildhall Art Gallery, shows a lost view of London as the river seen is not the Thames, but part of the River Tyburn, which now flows beneath the city, coming out into the Thames at Whitehall Stairs, near Downing Street. When Sheridan, who was in the Houses of Parliament at the time when the fire broke out, heard the news, he hurried to his theatre. Upon realising that there was little he could do to help, he sat down in the coffeehouse opposite and ordered a bottle of port, remarking rather dryly 'a man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside'.
As evidenced by the present painting, Abraham Pether was a supreme example of the English landscape painter engaging with fashionable notions of the Sublime and Romanticism at the turn of the nineteenth century. The awe-inspiring effect of flames blazing against the night sky, used to such great effect in this painting, had been explored by other artists, such as in Joseph Wright of Derby's Vesuvius in Eruption (1780; Birmingham, Barber Institute) and other in domestic scenes, for example Philip de Loutherbourg's 1801 painting Coalbrookdale at Night (London, Tate Gallery). Like Wright before him, Pether would often balance competing light sources, here the fire and the moon, to create greater complexity in his paintings and a heightened sense of emotion in his viewers. His wonderful ability to capture the effect of moonlight silvered clouds led to his being given the moniker 'Moonlight Pether'.
As evidenced by the present painting, Abraham Pether was a supreme example of the English landscape painter engaging with fashionable notions of the Sublime and Romanticism at the turn of the nineteenth century. The awe-inspiring effect of flames blazing against the night sky, used to such great effect in this painting, had been explored by other artists, such as in Joseph Wright of Derby's Vesuvius in Eruption (1780; Birmingham, Barber Institute) and other in domestic scenes, for example Philip de Loutherbourg's 1801 painting Coalbrookdale at Night (London, Tate Gallery). Like Wright before him, Pether would often balance competing light sources, here the fire and the moon, to create greater complexity in his paintings and a heightened sense of emotion in his viewers. His wonderful ability to capture the effect of moonlight silvered clouds led to his being given the moniker 'Moonlight Pether'.