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Creator:
Samuel Scott, 1701/2–1772
Title:

The Building of Westminster Bridge

Former Title(s):

The Building of Westminster Bridge with an Imaginary View of Westminster Abbey [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

Date:
ca. 1742
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
27 x 47 inches (68.6 x 119.4 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1974.3.33
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1974.3.33FR
Subject Terms:
abbey | boats | bridge (built work) | building | cityscape | cityscape | construction | river | rowboats
Associated Places:
City of Westminster | England | Europe | London | Thames | United Kingdom | Westminster | Westminster Abbey | Westminster bridge
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:191
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Samuel Scott painted multiple views of Westminster Bridge, one of the most spectacular engineering feats of the eighteenth century. The need to relieve congestion on the Old London Bridge had long been felt. In 1736, Parliament passed a bill to support the construction of a new bridge, which was carried out under the direction of a Swiss architect, Charles Labelye. The first stones were laid in 1739 and the final pier completed in 1744, although the bridge would not open until 1750. This view is taken from one of the many timber yards that lined the south bank of the Thames and serviced the construction of London’s West End, and it includes the towers then under construction on Westminster Abbey, dominating the skyline at right, as well as a spire that was never built but was shown in a print published in 1739. At the extreme left of the picture are two technological innovations that facilitated the bridge’s construction: a horse-powered pile driver and a sinking caisson that was used to build the piers. Scott was evidently as much concerned with commerce and labor on the river as with the construction of the bridge over it: figures engage in fishing and in ferrying passengers, produce, barrels, and bales.

Gallery label for Spreading Canvas - Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2016-09-09 - 2016-12-04)

Spreading Canvas - Eighteenth - Century British Marine Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2016-09-09 - 2016-12-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Ferrara Galleries of Modern & Contemporary Art, 2001-02-25 - 2001-05-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (The Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1999-10-22 - 2000-01-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1998-02-08 - 1998-04-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Mikael Ahlund, Landskapets roster, studier i Elias Martins bildvèarld , Atlantis, Stockholm, 2011, pp. 277, 279, Bild 173, NJ18 M3866352 A45 2011 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Canaletto to Constable : paintings of town and country from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., 1998, pp. 9, 37, pl. 6, ND1354.4 Y25 1998 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 196-197, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Markman Ellis, River and Labour in Samuel Scott's Thames Views in the Mid-Eighteenth Century, London Journal, vol. 37, November 2012, pp. 167-68, fig. 7, Available online : ORBIS (in Taylor $ Francis Online) [ORBIS]

Eleanor Hughes, Spreading Canvas : Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2016, pp. 200-01, cat. 59, no. 59, ND 1373.G74 S67 2016 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Richard Kingzett, Catalogue of the Works of Samuel Scott, Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 48, Walpole Society, Oxford, 1982, pp. 55-56, 57, D, Pl. 21b, N12 W35 A1 48+ (YCBA) [YCBA]


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