print
- Museum number
- 1875,0508.1456
- Title
- Object: A View of the Chinese Pavillions and Boxes in Vaux Hall Gardens
- Description
-
Supper boxes in Vauxhall Gardens with visitors promenading and a waiter entering from left; the central pavilion decorated with a chinoserie scene of Vulcan catching Mars and Venus in his net. 1751; this impression probably 1830s
- Production date
-
1830-1839 (c.)
-
1751
- Dimensions
-
Height: 287 millimetres
-
Width: 418 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Late in 1751 two series of prints of Vauxhall Gardens appeared: one after Canaletto published by Robert Sayer, the other after Samuel Wale published by John Bowles. This is a late impression of a print in the latter series published by Francis West who acquired a number of Bowles's plates and published them in the 1830s.
According to John Lockman writing in 1752 ("A Sketch of Spring Gardens") the north-west part of Vauxhall Gardens had in the previous season consisted of "downs ... covered with shrubs". By the 1751/52 season the new supper boxes and pavilions shown here had been built. They appear in both the Canaletto and Wale series, but with much variation in detail suggesting that at least one version was based on drawings made when construction was not yet complete. See S. O'Connell, "London 1753" (BM, 2003), pp. 237-40, for further discussion.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2008 May-Nov, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, 'Chinese Whispers...'
- Acquisition date
- 1875
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1875,0508.1456
