London Landscapes

The panoramic genre is still used by artists in the 21st century, both in homage to antiquarian images of the city and in creating new visions of today's urban landscape. The Museum has one of the earliest known prospects of London in oil, the 19th century Rhinebeck Panorama and many of the key prints and drawings in the history of the panorama.

Prospects were first commissioned in the 16th century to reflect civic pride. They showed the extent of the city's incursion into the landscape and emphasised the architectural landmarks that dominated the skyline.

From the late 18th century exhibitions of panoramas became popular tourist attractions. The Barker Panorama of 1792 was the first to create and exhibit large 'immersive' images into which visitors came to experience a view in the round.

A very limited number of prints and paintings survive showing London in the early 17th century. View of Greenwich, Flemish School, 1620-30 is one. It depicts London as seen from Greenwich and is the earliest painted view of London from a distance showing its setting in a landscape. At the time London had a population of about a quarter of a million, far in excess of any other British city of the time. But the open green fields show the city still contained and quite distinct from Greenwich. Idealised views predominate in prospects. The viewer is far enough away not to see the grime, crime and poverty, and is left with fields, clear skies and fine landmarks.

We know very little about the artist who created this view and there are no obvious candidates to attribute it to. The art world was far less developed in London at this time than on the continent, in terms of size, training and the art market. Many continental artists came to London and achieved success in oil and print. One of these was Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-77), a Czech artist whose most famous work is his etching Long View of London from Bankside, 1647. The art of etching was not widely known in England in the early 17th century and the only serious and skilled practitioners were foreigners, so when Hollar came to work in London from 1636 under the patronage of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, the field was open. The Long View was sketched between 1636 and 1644.

As a royalist Hollar went into exile from England during and after the civil war from 1644-52 and he took his huge archive of drawings with him. So the plates for this view were etched in Antwerp and it was published by Cornelis Danckers in Antwerp in 1647. Many of Hollar's etchings of London are dated from this period, including the Long View - his masterpiece. Its accuracy is unprecedented and without this view, we would now be very much the poorer in our knowledge of London before the Great Fire of 1666.

During the 18th century the now traditional 'long view' on many sheets went out of fashion, only to be revived later with the advent of the 360-degree panorama. Robert Barker, an Edinburgh portrait painter had the idea of a 'true' panorama, an all-round view painted on the inside of a cylinder, which would immerse the viewer. In 1789 he opened his view of City and Castle of Edinburgh in London to great success.

Capitalizing on this he invented the name panorama to publicize the new attraction. The name derives from the Greek 'pan' - all and 'orama' - see. Barker's second panorama was even bigger and showed a semi-circular view of London from Albion Mills. The Museum of London holds six hand-coloured prints of the view which were sold as souvenirs.

From 1793, Barker moved to the first purpose-built panorama building in the world, a brick rotunda in Leicester Square. Battles and overseas views were extremely popular themes for later panoramas and the panorama was promoted as an alternative to travel. Altogether 126 panoramas were exhibited between 1793 and 1863.

Barker's initial charge for the exhibition was 3 shillings, targeting an affluent audience. Later He later reduced this to one shilling, enabling a more general public to attend. By the early 19th century panoramas were becoming more popular and rivals had been established. Barker's licence expired in 1801 and many other similar shows were established in London in the Strand, at the Spring Gardens and Thomas Horner's 'Colosseum' in Regent's Park, probably the most ambitious panoramic entertainment created.

These shows had a great impact on the viewing public, but few works survive and the buildings no longer stand. Panoramas were an ephemeral art and the their success was not so much in creating a lasting body of work, but perhaps in the creation of a new public for art and a new conception of what art could be. One lasting legacy is, of course, how frequently we use the word 'panorama' today.

Emma Shepley, Department of Paintings, Prints and Drawings, Museum of London February 2003.

Visit the Museum to see...

The Rhinebeck panorama on display in the World City galleries

Order these books from your local library...

Hyde, Ralph. Gilded Scenes and Shining Prospects (1985)
Hyde, Ralph. Panoramania (1988)
Tindall, Gillian. The man who drew London (2002)