Shipping at Anchor in the Thames Estuary, near Wapping
by SCOTT, Samuel, Oil on canvas, 198 x 211 cm
During the eighteenth century the Thames was the main artery of London, and shipping the principal means of transport. Five hundred feet wider than it is today, its crowded banks, teaming with activity and crammed with every imaginable vessel, would have been a familiar sight and an everyday reality for the city’s inhabitants. This painting captures all the bustle and commotion of river life in every detail.