Westminster Bridge by Moonlight

Location

Country: Other
City: other locations abroad

This night view is dominated by the structure of Westminster Bridge. A Thames barge glides under an arch, while numerous people, on foot or in carriages, cross the bridge above. To the right we see part of the Houses of Parliament. In the background, Lambeth Palace, St Mary's Church and Lambeth Bridge can all be seen.

A late work by Henry Pether, this is a typical example of the artist's moonlit scenes of the Thames, a subject which he painted frequently. Like the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Bridge had only recently been completed when this picture was painted. Following the almost complete destruction of the historic Palace of Westminster in the disastrous fire of 1834, the new Houses of Parliament were designed by Sir Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin in 1835 and built between 1840 and 1860. The new Westminster Bridge, replacing a former mid-18th-century bridge, was erected between 1854 and 1862 to the designs of the engineer, Thomas Page.

Henry Pether was a painter of townscapes and landscapes. He was one of a family of painters who specialised in moonlit scenes and painted in a similar style. The most famous member of the family was Henry’s father, Abraham Pether (1756–1812). Pether exhibited seven paintings at the Royal Academy between 1828 and 1862. He also showed his work at the Royal Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street (1833-1834 and 1855) and at the British Institution (1865). During his career he moved several times, living at addresses in Southampton, Camden Town and south London, probably to escape his creditors. In 1837, The London Gazette reported that Pether was an inmate of a debtor’s prison and described his profession as ‘Surveyor, Artist, Engineer, and Architect’. Difficulty in making a sufficient income from painting alone may have led him to experiment with other occupations and entrepreneurial projects. In 1839 he and ‘Alfred Singer, of Vauxhall’ were granted a patent for ‘improvements in the preparation and combination of earthenware or porcelain for the purpose of mosaic’. Mr Singer went on to exhibit mosaic tiles at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and a review of the exhibition mentions Pether as one of those responsible for ‘re-introducing this very beautiful kind of decoration’. Pether continued his attempts to supplement his career as an artist with further patents for architectural materials in 1864 and 1867 and a patent for a lamp globe in 1876.

Places

England, River Thames, London, Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Palace, Westminster

Subjects

walking, topography, townscape/cityscape, evening, moon, man, woman, crowd, lamp post, bridge (urban), government building, palace, barge/canal boat

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Henry Pether

Title

Westminster Bridge by Moonlight

Date

c.1862

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 61.50 cm, width: 91.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Oscar & Peter Johnson, March 1967

Inscription

sbr

GAC number

7866