Royal Naval College, Greenwich; a study from the north-west

A study of the Royal Naval College from the north-west, apparently from an upper window in the old Ship Hotel (destroyed in the Second World War), which stood by Greenwich Pier at the north end of the present Cutty Sark dry-dock. On the left are the chimneys of Greenwich Power Station (built c. 1906-10) with the College domes, right. The Admiral President's flag flies over his residence in the north pavilions of the King Charles Court. The College grounds, now Monument Gardens, in the immediate foreground contain the obelisk commemorating naval casualties of the New Zealand Wars in the 1870s. Outside the railings on the public river-walk (middle right) is the obelisk (1854) commemorating Lt. Joseph-Rene Bellot of the French navy, who drowned while carrying despatches for Sir Edward Belcher's Franklin search expedition in 1853.

The boxed number '[106] unpriced' note on this drawing indicates it is from Wyllie's studio collection, purchased soon after his death in 1931 for the Museum by Sir James Caird.

As the bare trees show, this is apparently one of the sketches Wyllie made when he came to Greenwich in January 1924. The 'Greenwich Mercury' of 11 January 1924 reported that 'Mr W.L. Wyllie, England’s most famous painter of marine pictures, is staying at the Ship Hotel, where he is preparing the preliminary designs for a large picture which he is to paint, and which is intended for hanging in the corridor of the Greenwich Town Hall.' The Town Hall at that time was what is now West Greenwich House on Greenwich High Road.

Wyllie appears to have painted at least two versions of an aerial view Greenwich Park towards London, one of which was presented to the Town Hall and remains in the Borough collection (Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, LDGHC: 2011.63). One version of the picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1924 with the title 'The flowing river winds past Palace Park and the homes of toiling millions' (no. 333). Wyllie also published an etched version of the same view (see PAF0715).