Claude de Jongh, ca. 1600–1663, Dutch, active in Britain (1615, 1625, 1627, 1628)
Title:
The Thames at Westminster
Date:
ca. 1630
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on panel
Dimensions:
17 1/16 × 23 3/4 inches (43.3 × 60.3 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1978.43.8
Gallery Label:
All three of the views of the river Thames that hang in this bay were painted in Utrecht in the Netherlands but were based on drawings made by Claude de Jongh in London. They may well have been aimed at the Dutch market rather than intended for British collectors. The central elements of this landscape are repeated in de Jongh’s other representation of The Thames at Westminster Stairs, which hangs nearby. In this version, however, de Jongh simplifies the composition by reducing the number of buildings and introduces a large and entirely fictitious tower to the right of the foreground. That de Jongh felt at liberty to improve his composition at the expense of its topographical accuracy attests to the growing popularity of the genre of landscape painting during the first half of the seventeenth century. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
