Greenwich, with London in the distance - YCBA Collections Search

Jan Vorsterman, ca. 1643–after 1685, Dutch, Greenwich, with London in the distance, ca. 1680

Creator:: Jan Vorsterman, ca. 1643–after 1685
formerly unknown artist
Title:: Greenwich, with London in the distance
Former Title(s):: View of London from Greenwich Hill
Date:: ca. 1680
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 29 1/2 × 57 1/2 inches (74.9 × 146.1 cm), Frame: 37 1/2 × 64 3/4 inches (95.3 × 164.5 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1976.7.112
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1976.7.112FR
Subject Terms:: boats | buildings | carriage | children | cityscape | deer | estates | hills | houses | landscape | mansions | men | park (grounds) | path | people | river | road | towers | trees
Associated Places:: Deptford Dockyard | Dogs, Isle of | England | Europe | Greenwich | Greenwich Hospital | Greenwich Park | London | Queen's House | Royal Greenwich Observatory | Royal Naval College | Thames | United Kingdom
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:334
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

At the center of this canvas, a carriage arrives at or departs from the park entrance of the Queen’s House, designed by Inigo Jones. There, in about 1673, the Willem van de Veldes, father and son, were given studio rooms on the ground floor and proceeded to create drawings, paintings, and tapestry designs for British patrons. Jan Vorsterman represents Greenwich in a state of change: the site of the long-established Greenwich Royal Park and a fashionable resort, it has a new classical-style palace in progress for King Charles II (later repurposed as the Royal Hospital for Seamen). To the right, behind the ruined towers flanking Henry VIII’s tilt yard (jousting ground), stands the unfinished shell of Charles II’s King’s House on the site of the former Tudor Palace of Greenwich. On the hill to the left is Charles II’s Royal Observatory, England’s pioneering new center for “the finding out of the longitude of places for perfecting navigation and astronomy.” Greenwich is also shown as a key point on the highway of maritime commerce, naval power, and royal prestige, linking London to the North Sea and the wider world. Beyond, where the river curves around the Isle of Dogs, lies the Royal Dockyard at Deptford, with Royal Navy ships “in ordinary” (reserve) lying off it.

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]

The Art of Time (Bruce Museum of Arts and Science, 1999-12-18 - 2000-03-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Crown Pictorial - Art and the British Monarchy (Yale Center for British Art, 1990-12-05 - 1991-02-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Penn's England (Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, 1982-09-05 - ) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Linda Colley, Crown Pictorial : Art and the British Monarchy : Exhibition Labels, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, pp. 59-60, no. 157, N8219 K5 C761 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Linda Colley, Crown Pictorial : Art and the British Monarchy, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, p. 43, no. 157, N8219 K5 C76 1990 (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. 30-31, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Eleanor Hughes, Spreading Canvas : Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2016, p. 136, cat. 1, ND 1373.G74 S67 2016 (YCBA) [YCBA]

David Jacques, Gardens of Court and Country : English Design , 1630-1730, New Haven : Yale Univeristy Press, 2017, p. 25, fig. 12, SB466 G7 +J334 2017 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 38, no. 3, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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