Greenwich Hospital from the West Side RMG BHC1822

Greenwich Hospital from the West Side
A view down what is now College Walk, from the west towards the Grand Square. The artist has emphasised the dimensions of the buildings through his use of light and shadow, with the dark buildings in the foreground to the left contrasted with the brilliant white of the stone in the middle distance. The architecture has been carefully delineated but also looms up on either side of the roadway and seems to dwarf the figures between. The building in the foreground on the left is the King Charles Court. That on the right is the King William Court, the wall flanking the road being the north façade of the Painted Hall (decorated by Sir James Thornhill, 1707-26). In the distance on the right, in bright sunlight, is the Chapel colonnade under the dome of the Queen Mary Court. Opposite, on the left of the roadway, the south corner of the Queen Anne Court is also seen in highlight and between the two in the far distance are what is now the Trafalgar Quarters on Park Row, built as offices for administration of the Greenwich out-pensions in 1813–15.
The figures are arranged in two distinct groups, one in the foreground centred around the Painted Hall, the other in the far distance, with one figure on the left facing the viewer. Some are placed in shadow and they wear a variety of uniforms. Some of these can be identified as pensioners of the Hospital, wearing frock-coats, tricorn hats and knee breeches. The presence of women indicates that the Greenwich area became a community of families living apart from pensioner husbands and many of the wives found domestic or similar work. One woman wearing a shawl, bonnet and red skirt, holds a baby.
The artist created a series of paintings of Greenwich; see also BHC1814, BHC1830 and BHC1832. This one appears to have been commissioned or purchased by Richard Hollier of Maze Hill, Greenwich, whose widow presented it to the Hospital in 1856 in accordance with his wishes.

Greenwich Hospital from the West Side