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Lot Essay
Edward Pritchett was a painter of Venetian scenes who exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institute and Suffolk Street. His London views were few in comparison, but the stately classicism of the Greenwich waterfront appealed to him; an alternative perspective - The Terrace, Greenwich Hospital - hung at the R.A. in 1840.
In this composition the elegant facade forms a backdrop to the busy Thames traffic. Since 1937 the buildings have housed the National Maritime Museum; previous to this they incorporated the Royal Naval College, re-located from Portsmouth in 1873. In the first half of the 19th century they retained their original function as a Naval Hospital for injured seamen. Their organic elegance belies the accumulative nature of their structure and the sometimes controversial status of this institution, which led to its closure in 1869.
In 1692 Queen Mary witnessed the wounded naval officers returning from the victorious sea battle of La Hogue, and authorised for a hospital to be built on the site of Greenwich Palace. This had fallen into disrepair since the Civil War. So began an ambitious process of construction which eventually incorporated four wings: King Charles' wing (commemorating its origins); Queen Anne's wing; Queen Mary's wing, and King William's wing. Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Sir Nicholas Hawksmoor began work on their designs, and were succeeded by Vanbrugh, who completed the west wing twenty-one years after its initial foundation in 1705.
The Hospital frames the Queen's House, visible below the Observatory, and rendered diminutive by distance. The oldest part of the complex, built in 1635, also operated as a charitable institution - the Royal Naval Asylum for sailors' orphans - before its appropriation by the Museum. The clear river view is the legacy of Queen Mary, who rejected Wren's original vision of an interrupted front. Samuel Johnson deemed the result 'too much detached to make one great whole'. The stately grandeur also rankled with those who criticised the internal management: 'Columns, colonnades and friezes ill accord with bully beef and sour beef mixed with water' quipped Captain Baillie in 1771.
The building was soon established as a place in which it was fit to salute Britain's naval prowess. The colonnades which adjoin the Queen's House to its later wings, completed in 1809, were commissioned to commemmorate the Trafalgar victory. The Painted Hall, in the new west wing, displayed the beginnings of Nelson Collection which now includes Turner's Victory.
Pritchett depicts the wide variety of shipping along this stretch of the Thames. The largest ships are coasting vessels. The working boats in the right foreground, with a Peter boat on the far right, contrast with the leisure boat in the middle ground and the two City Company barges. On the left hand side a Thames barge has been depicted in front of a paddle steamer, introduced on the Thames in the 1820s.
In this composition the elegant facade forms a backdrop to the busy Thames traffic. Since 1937 the buildings have housed the National Maritime Museum; previous to this they incorporated the Royal Naval College, re-located from Portsmouth in 1873. In the first half of the 19th century they retained their original function as a Naval Hospital for injured seamen. Their organic elegance belies the accumulative nature of their structure and the sometimes controversial status of this institution, which led to its closure in 1869.
In 1692 Queen Mary witnessed the wounded naval officers returning from the victorious sea battle of La Hogue, and authorised for a hospital to be built on the site of Greenwich Palace. This had fallen into disrepair since the Civil War. So began an ambitious process of construction which eventually incorporated four wings: King Charles' wing (commemorating its origins); Queen Anne's wing; Queen Mary's wing, and King William's wing. Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Sir Nicholas Hawksmoor began work on their designs, and were succeeded by Vanbrugh, who completed the west wing twenty-one years after its initial foundation in 1705.
The Hospital frames the Queen's House, visible below the Observatory, and rendered diminutive by distance. The oldest part of the complex, built in 1635, also operated as a charitable institution - the Royal Naval Asylum for sailors' orphans - before its appropriation by the Museum. The clear river view is the legacy of Queen Mary, who rejected Wren's original vision of an interrupted front. Samuel Johnson deemed the result 'too much detached to make one great whole'. The stately grandeur also rankled with those who criticised the internal management: 'Columns, colonnades and friezes ill accord with bully beef and sour beef mixed with water' quipped Captain Baillie in 1771.
The building was soon established as a place in which it was fit to salute Britain's naval prowess. The colonnades which adjoin the Queen's House to its later wings, completed in 1809, were commissioned to commemmorate the Trafalgar victory. The Painted Hall, in the new west wing, displayed the beginnings of Nelson Collection which now includes Turner's Victory.
Pritchett depicts the wide variety of shipping along this stretch of the Thames. The largest ships are coasting vessels. The working boats in the right foreground, with a Peter boat on the far right, contrast with the leisure boat in the middle ground and the two City Company barges. On the left hand side a Thames barge has been depicted in front of a paddle steamer, introduced on the Thames in the 1820s.