Panorama--Robert Havell, Jr.

Ralph Hyde in Gilded Scenes and Shining Prospects (Yale 1985) notes that this print is not the familiar birds-eye view, but a "balloon view" as evidenced by Havell's key which states the scene was drawn from a point 402 feet above the river Thames. In the 1820s balloon ascents had become a thrilling and increasingly common spectacle in London and printmakers quickly enhanced their bird-eye views with more elevated perspectives. What is particularly interesting about Havell's print is that he actually enhanced and adapted the famous "Rhinebeck" panorama, a spectacularly detailed but unattributed watercolour believed to have been drawn around 1810, which measures over 8 feet long and depicts London from the same vantage point. The Rhinbeck is so-titled because it was discovered in 1940 sealed in a barrel in the attic of a house in Rhinebeck, New York. The fact that this location is just up the Hudson River from where the artist eventually settled with his family further substantiates the Havell provenance. The notable landmarks in this vista include the many towers and spires of Wren's city churches, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and Windsor Castle on the horizon.