‘Westminster from the Thames by Moonlight’ by Henry Pether (1800-1880).

The painting - one of the artist’s finest views of London in the 1860s - depicts the Houses of Parliament, the tower of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the old foreshore as seen from the Thames.

The height and colour of the full moon tells us this is a nightscape of early summer; the Great Clock gives the time as twenty minutes to midnight. Although the new bridge and Palace of Westminster were both operational by 1862, construction of the new Victoria Embankment was not begun until February 1964, indicating Henry Pether painted the current work in the summer of 1863, the year in which the Great Clock began striking the hour.

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Henry Pether was taught by his father, the eminent Georgian topographical painter Abraham Pether (1756-1812), and went on to became one of the most important English-born view painters of the 19th century. The attention to architectural accuracy and detail and the subtle colouring of Henry Pether’s atmospheric nightscapes were a major influence upon other artists such as John Atkinsone Grimshaw, half a century later.

Between 1828 and 1865 Henry Pether exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists. Today, paintings by Henry Pether are held in the collections of Tate Britain, the City of London, the Royal Museums in Greenwich, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut.

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Dimensions: (framed) 93cm x 124cm (36½” x 48¾”).
Dimensions: (canvas only) 61cm x 92cm (24” x 36”).
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Circa 1870: William Whiteley Fine Art Dept., Queen’s Road, London. Various original gallery labels, verso. 2000: ‘Important Marine Paintings’, Sotheby’s, London. Thence in private UK collection.
Presentation: 19th century carved water gilded exhibition frame.
Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.