London, from Greenwich
London, from Greenwich

Currently not on view

London, from Greenwich,

1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775–1851
Charles Turner, engraver, British, 1774–1857
x1937-604

This panoramic view is based on Joseph Mallord William Turner’s painting London from Greenwich Park (1809; Tate, London). The Queen’s House, Greenwich Hospital, and, in the distance, Saint Paul’s Cathedral are all visible from this pastoral vantage point along the Thames. The center of the British Empire is strikingly portrayed as a small metropolis scattered among vast sweeps of rural land; London is here both
possibility and paradox. Turner had captured the ambition of this burgeoning urban landscape in a poem that accompanied the painting when it was first exhibited in 1809:

Where burthen’d Thames reflect the crowded sail, /
Commercial care and busy toil prevail, / Whose murky
veil, aspiring to the skies, / Obscures thy beauty, and thy
form denies, / Save where thy spires pierce the doubtful
air, / As gleams of hope amidst a world of care.

Information

Title
London, from Greenwich
Dates

1811

Maker
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Medium

Etching and mezzotint

Dimensions

plate: 21.1 x 29.8 cm (8 5/16 x 11 3/4 in.)
sheet: 28.2 x 42 cm (11 1/8 x 16 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

Museum purchase

Object Number
x1937-604
Inscription

Drawn & etched by J.M.W. Turner Esq. RA.
Engraved by C. Turner LONDON, from GREENWICH
Picture in possession of Walter Fawkes Esq. of Farnley
Published June 1, 1811 by Mr. Turner Queen Ann Street West

Culture
European
Type
prints

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