Watercolour View of St. Paul’s Cathedral from Lambeth Marsh 1807

Signed; D. Thomson and dated 1807 (lower right). Watercolour over pencil, on paper.

Exhibited: Associated Artists in Water Colours, London 1808. No.7 – A View of St. Paul’s from Lambeth Marsh. Thomson included two other watercolours at the exhibition: No.95 – A Mill with Cattle, and No.24 – A View of Edinburgh from the South East.

Condition: The watercolour has been professionally cleaned. Though somewhat faded, it remains an evocative record of a time when parts of London were still rural. Its romantic composition, draughtsmanship, and surviving colours reinforce this sense of a vanished world.

This watercolour is being offered unframed. We have retained the original composite frame, which requires some restoration and is available on request.

Sheet: 16 1/8 x 20 1/2 in. (40.9 x 52.)

Frame: 22 1/4 x 26 3/8 in. (54 x 67 cm.)

The view of St Paul’s, looking south-west from Lambeth Marsh, is significant because the surrounding land would soon be developed. For centuries, the marsh preserved a green, rural oasis close to central London, but this changed within a single lifetime. Between 1780 and 1820, Lambeth Marsh became notorious as a symbol of urban poverty and deprivation, later chronicled by writers and social commentators including Dickens, Mayhew, and Booth. In the early nineteenth century, London—though never one of Britain’s principal industrial cities expanded rapidly through mass migration from the countryside and Ireland. Lime kilns, potteries, blacking factories, and lead, iron, and printing works were established among houses without proper drainage or water supplies.

Ref: On Lambeth Marsh: The South Bank and Waterloo, by Graham Gibberd. Published by Jane Gibberd and printed by BAS Printers Ltd, 1992.

David Thomson (d.1815) was by profession an artist and an amateur musician., he exhibited landscapes at the RA 1, BI 1, and 3 others from 1807 to 1813. Records show that in 1807 he was sharing accommodation at 122, Piccadilly, with the miniature painter, William John Thomson R.S.A. (1771-1845). Both artists exhibited at the R.A. in the same year. His brother George Thomson (1757-1851) was a music collector and publisher. David provided illustrations and songs for his brother George’s collections of national airs. With Muzio Clementi of London he published his own collection, ‘The melodies of different nations’, and a collection of Mozart songs with his own lyrics. In 1806 he made a tour to Wales to create illustrations for George’s collection of Welsh airs, and by 1813 he was based in London. Joanna Baillie wrote fondly of him in a letter to George Thomson of 17 June 1815 (BL, Add. MS 35264, fols. 218–20), the year of David’s death. She spoke of ‘his worth and his various talents.’ Keith Thomson, a half-brother (d.1855), was a leading teacher of music at Inverness. Paton Thomson, the engraver (cf. Redgrave), was probably a relative.

The V&A Museum holds a sketch by Patrick Nasmyth (1787–1831) showing an identical view he produced the same year, see photograph: Lambeth Marsh by Patrick Nasmyth, 4 June 1807, it suggests a connection between the two artists. David and his brother George would certainly have known Patrick through his father, Alexander Nasmyth, who supplied drawings for George’s music publications. David and Patrick may therefore have sketched Lambeth Marsh together during an excursion; both drawings can be seen in the photo showing the two pictures joined next to each over.

Patrick Nasmyth (1787-1831) was born in Edinburgh; he was the eldest of 11 children of the Scottish artist Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840). One of his brothers was the engineer James Nasmyth, who worked for a while in Lambeth. He studied under his father, and his talents were soon recognised. He moved to Lambeth in 1807 where he specialised in landscape subjects painted in both oil and watercolour and often sketched in the vicinity at a time when much of it was still country. He died at Lambeth on 17 August 1831.

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