A century-old panorama of Greenwich featuring some of the town centre’s long-lost landmarks is going up for auction next week.
The Flowing River Winds Past Palace, Park, and the Homes of Toiling Millions by William Lionel Wyllie captures a view from Greenwich Park across the working River Thames in 1924.
Wyllie, a celebrated maritime artist, is believed to have created the large-scale oil painting while staying at the riverside Ship Hotel that year. The Ship was destroyed in the Second World War and its site was used to house the Cutty Sark clipper in the 1950s.
The 122 x 183.5cm painting was exhibited in the Royal Academy, while another version was presented to the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich and is still part of the borough archives. It is expected to fetch between £15,000 and £20,000 in an online auction at Dreweatts on June 10.
As well as the Ship – whose name has recently been adopted by a new pub on the Greenwich waterfront – the painting also depicts the spire of St Mary’s church on King William Walk, which was demolished 12 years later.
The drill ship Fame, which was used for exercises by boys at the Greenwich Hospital School, can also be seen next to the Queen’s House. Fame was dismantled when the school moved to Suffolk in 1933.
One present-day landmark – the Greenwich Foot Tunnel – can be seen next to the Ship Hotel, having been open for 22 years when the painting was created.
“Painted in the final decade of Wyllie’s career, this panoramic view of Greenwich and the Thames is a masterful synthesis of maritime activity, architectural grandeur, and urban history. It stands as one of his most accomplished celebrations of London’s mercantile identity,” Lucy Darlington, the head of sale at Dreweatts, said.
The sale of Old Master, British and European Art begins at 10.30am on June 10.
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