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Description: | Oil on canvas. This early 18th-century view of Covent Garden looks east, from the portico of St. Paul's Church towards Russell Street. The view is compressed, bringing all the buildings of Covent Garden closer together and making the market place seem smaller than it is.
The painting is inscribed with the monogram 'FVA' on a wheelbarrow, to the left of the composition. Two other views of Covent Garden by Frans van Aken or his brother, Joseph, are known to survive: one in the Museum of London collection and another in a private collection. This is the only signed example.
The sundial column (seen here in the centre of the square) was paid for by wealthy residents of Covent Garden and erected in 1668. It was removed in 1790. Tom King's notorious coffee house is the wooden building depicted to the right of the work. The coffee house is also seen, along with the drunken revellers who frequented it, in Hogarth's painting ‘Four Times of the Day: Morning’ (National Trust). However, Hogarth wrongly placed the wooden structure directly in front of St Paul’s Church. | Subjects: | genre shop breeches shawl horse working class house public square stockings parsnip dormer window topography 18th century costume Corinthian woman bonnet chimney townscape/cityscape crowd man shirt sundial vendor weathervane robe straw hat cloisters cobbles market coffee house barrow cabbage dress apple handcart column shopping dog clerical costume arcade apron | Temporal: | 1725-1730; 1725/1730 | Source: | Government Art Collection | Creator: | Joseph van Aken | Identifier: | http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/work.aspx?... | Go to resource |
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