Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor's Procession on the Thames

Canaletto, 1697–1768, Venetian, active in Britain (1746–55), Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor's Procession on the Thames, 1747

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Creator:

Canaletto, 1697–1768

Title:

Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor's Procession on the Thames

Former Title(s):

Westminster Bridge, London, with the Lord Mayor's Procession on the Thames [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

Westminster Bridge from the North with the Lord Mayor's Procession, 29 October 1746

The Thames at Westminster Bridge: the Lord Mayor's Procession

Date:

1747

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

Frame: 43 5/8 x 56 x 3 inches (110.8 x 142.2 x 7.6 cm), 37 3/4 x 50 1/4 inches (95.9 x 127.6 cm)

Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Credit Line:

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Copyright Status:

Public Domain

Accession Number:

B1976.7.94

Classification:

Paintings

Collection:

Paintings and Sculpture

Link to Frame:

B1976.7.94FR

Subject Terms:

Associated Places:

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:4994

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This view on the Thames commemorates two important civic events: the annual river festivities honoring Lord Mayor's Day, and the completion of Westminster Bridge. When Canaletto painted the work in 1747, the bridge was in fact still under construction (it was not opened until three years later), and this part of the scene is largely imaginary. The project was subject both to delays and controversy. The city's only existing bridge was the old London Bridge, and the building of a new one was vehemently opposed by groups such as the watermen (ferry operators), who regarded it as an unfair threat to their livelihoods.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005

In this view of the Thames Canaletto commemorates two civic events: the annual fluvial festivities honoring Lord Mayor's Day and the completion of Westminster Bridge. Canaletto's great popularity among his British patrons depended on his prodigious production of festive and atmospheric scenes of life in the piazzas and on the canals of Venice, and during his eight years in England, he would paint several views full of details of London life but redolent with Venetian allusions. The construction of Westminster Bridge was one of his most frequent London subjects, perhaps because several of his patrons sat on the committee governing its building.
Canaletto shows the Lord Mayor's Day procession from a bird's-eye view, looking south and directly facing the bridge. On the right the skyline of Westminster dominates; in the distance on the left is Lambeth Palace, London residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Hawksmoor's newly completed towers of the west front of Westminster Abbey peak above the cityscape to the right, and the Union Jack proudly flies above the tower of St. Margaret's, Westminster. To the left of the Abbey the sloping roof of Westminster Hall leads the eye to the double spires of St. Stephen's, then the seat of the House of Commons, and farther in the distance are the four spires of St. John-the-Evangelist in Smith Square.
Topographically faithful in its depiction of the London skyline, the painting is equally meticulous in its rendering of the mayoral procession. The City of London celebrated Lord Mayor's Day annually on October 29 (in 1752 the date was changed to November 9). On that day the Lord Mayor was sworn into office by the Barons of the Exchequer and presented to the king. The ceremony began in the City, from whence the Lord Mayor, attended by various livery and Aldermen, traveled upriver to Westminster in a lavish water procession of offiicial and ceremonial barges. Canaletto paints the Lord Mayor's barge broadside, displaying its eighteen oarsmen and various attendants. The other official vessels can be identified from a caption to a contemporary print of the painting: from left to right, the barges belong to the Skinners, the Goldsmiths, and the Fishmongers; navigating under the arches of the bridge are those of the Clockworkers, Vintners, and Taylors; directly behind the Lord Mayor's is that of the Mercers and, at the far right, that of the Drapers. Canaletto enlivens his festive view of the procession by dotting the river with sailing barges, some of which are salutes, and by peopling the smaller boats, bridge, and windows with spectators eager to take part in the day's events.
Before Westminster Bridge was built, London Bridge was the only permanent structure crossing the Thames. The City Corporation, opposed to westward expansion of the city, and the Watermen of London, feeling their livelihood threatened, had lobbied vehemently to prevent its construction. Against their alarmist, self-interested objections, however, the Bridge Committee passed in 1736 an act to build Westminster Bridge; its foundation stone was dropped into the middle of the Thames in 1739.
Painted in 1747, the work was meant to coincide with the bridge's scheduled opening, but shortly before the inauguration one of the piers on the Westminster side began to settle dangerously, delaying the structure's completion until 1750. Canaletto, therefore, speculates on the bridge's final appearance: he ornaments each pier with an octagonal, half-domed alcove and decorates the central section with statues of the Thames and Isis. Only six pairs of these alcoves were actually built (one set at either end and one set at the central bay), and no such statues, although there may have been plans or drawings for them, ever adorned the bridge.

Julia Marciari-Alexander

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Casanova - The Seduction of Europe (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2018-02-10 - 2018-05-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto and the Conquest of Light (Hôtel de Caumont, Aix-en-Provence, France, 2015-05-06 - 2015-09-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Hanover's Rulers on the British Throne 1714 - 1837 (Niedersachsische Landesmuseum, 2014-05-01 - 2014-10-31) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Royal River (National Maritime Museum, 2012-04-27 - 2012-09-09) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto in England - A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755 (Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2007-01-24 - 2007-04-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Canaletto in England - A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755 (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-10-19 - 2006-12-31) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

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Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-09-27 - 2001-12-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Canaletto (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989-10-30 - 1990-01-21) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Georgian Canada - Conflict and Culture (Royal Ontario Museum, 1984-05-01 - 1984-11-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

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Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 48-49, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Stephen Daniels, Fields of vision, landscape, imagery and national identity in England and the United States , Polity Press, Cambridge, 1994, p. 135, fig. 9, N8213 D35 1994 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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Frederick Ilchman, Casanova: The Seduction of Europe, MFA Publications, Boston, Massachusetts, p. 197, fig. 100, N6756 .C37 2017 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

Alex Kidson, Earlier British paintings in the Walker Art Gallery and Sudley House, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2012, p.157, fig. 65, ND466 .K537 2012 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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