Westminster Bridge looking north from Millbank towards Millbank Street

James Miller is best known for his views of architectural sights in London and Westminster and is described by Martin Hardie as 'one of the most exact of the topographers' (M. Hardie, Watercolour Painting in Britain, vol. I, p. 182). The present watercolour accurately records Westminster Bridge, St. Paul's beyond and Lambeth Palace on the right bank. Hardie continues that works by James Miller are exceedingly rare and assumes that much of his work must remain undiscovered or wrongly attributed to some of the better known topographers working in London at the time, such as Paul Sandby, R.A. He is thought to have exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1781 to 1788.
Miller was fascinated with recording every day life in London. The watercolour depicts a coal lighter being discharged on the strand at low tide and casts deep shadows from a low sun across the bank of the Thames.
A comparable watercolour of Westminster Abbey, of the same size, with similar figures and handling of foliage was sold at Christie's London, 5 June 1973, lot 41 (9,500 gns.).