print
- Museum number
- 1864,0813.331
- Title
- Object: London [the long view]
- Description
-
Sheets 1 and 7 of the 'Long View of London' printed from a single plate on one sheet: plate 1 showing Whitehall to Durham House with a figure of Law and cherubs one wearing a lion skin; plate 7 showing the region east of the Tower with a river god and putti dressed as an American Indian with an ostrich. 1647
Etching
- Production date
- 1647
- Dimensions
-
Height: 474 millimetres
-
Width: 399 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The first of six sheets that comprise Hollar's 'Long View of London'. The BM set (all mounted as separate sheets, not joined) is not an even set, as this sheet has a different provenance from the other five (for which see 1864,0611.434 to 438/ PPA93631; PPA93633-36). All six plates are in Pennington's first state from the 1647 edition (there was a 1661 reprint by Justus Danckerts).
The view is taken from the tower of St Mary Overy in Southwark, and covers Westminster and London, reaching from Whitehall to beyond the Tower. It was etched while Hollar was an emigre in Antwerp, on commission by an Amsterdam publisher, and must have been based on numerous drawings made before his departure in 1644.
See R. Godfrey, 'Wenceslaus Hollar: A Bohemian Artist in England', New Haven and London, 1994, nos.62-64. The Yale Center for British Art has related drawings (B1977.14.4464 and B1977.14.5548) that relate to sheet three and six.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1864
- Acquisition notes
- 1864,0813.331 to 339 were all purchased at the sale of Freiherr Carl Rolas du Rosey in Leipzig on 13 June 1864 by Weigel (the auctioneer) on behalf of the BM.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1864,0813.331
