John Constable: Paintings of the Burning of Parliament

"Fire in London, Seen from Hampstead"
John Constable

"Fire in London, Seen from Hampstead"
attributed to John Constable

"On October 16, 1834, a devastating fire broke out in the Palace of Westminster after the burning of old wooden tally sticks in underfloor stoves ignited the panelling.

The fire was a massive spectacle, attracting thousands of onlookers, including artists like John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. When the old Palace caught fire, most of London turned out to watch the flames. John Constable was in a cab with his two eldest sons, stuck in a jam on Westminster Bridge, from where he painted this Fire Sketch (1834), showing the north end of the building ablaze. 

The evening of the 31st he spent with me, and while describing the fire, he drew with a pen on half a sheet of letter paper, Westminster Hall, as it showed itself during the conflagration. Blotting the light and shade with ink, which he rubbed with his finger where he wished it to be lightest. He then, on another half-sheet, added the towers to the abbey, and that of St. Margaret's Church, and the papers, being joined, form a very grand sketch of the whole scene."

"Along with thousands of other spectators, J.M.W. Turner himself witnessed the Burning of Parliament from the south bank of the River Thames, opposite Westminster. He made sketches using both pencil and watercolour in two sketchbooks from different vantage points, including from a rented boat, although it is unclear that the sketches were made instantly, en plein air. The sketchbooks were left by Turner to the National Gallery as part of the Turner Bequest and are now held by the Tate Gallery. Some other sketches in Turner's sketchbooks, previously thought to also show the Burning of Parliament, have been reassessed and may be sketches of the fire that destroyed the Grand Storehouse at the Tower of London on 30 October 1841."

"The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons"
by J.M.W. Turner

"The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons"
by J.M.W. Turner

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Life and Letters of John Constable, R.A." by Charles Robert Leslie, and Wikipedia's article "The Burning of the House of Lords and Commons.")