London from Fleet Street, the Lord Mayor's Show

London from Fleet Street, the Lord Mayor's Show from 1837 by David Roberts captures a ceremonial moment in the City of London. The Lord Mayor's Show, an annual procession through the City, provided Roberts with a rare English civic subject. Roberts built up his architectural subjects with careful pencil underdrawing before applying watercolor or oil washes, combining the documentary precision of a trained scene painter with genuine artistic sensitivity to light and atmosphere.

The London street scene combines architectural precision with the animated spectacle of the procession, rendered with Roberts's characteristic attention to both setting and atmosphere.