The Thames with Montagu House, from near Westminster Bridge, London

The Thames with Montagu House from near Westminster Bridge, painted in 1749, records the seventeenth-century mansion that served as the original home of the British Museum from its founding in 1753 until the current building replaced it in the 1840s. Scott's view captures the Whitehall waterfront in the period just before Westminster Bridge's completion transformed this stretch of the Thames. Scott's repeated depictions of Westminster Bridge make him its most important pictorial chronicler, documenting the bridge from its foundation in 1738 through its completion in 1750 and its subsequent establishment as one of London's defining landmarks.

The composition integrates the palatial riverside architecture with Scott's characteristic river traffic, the careful rendering of Montagu House's facade providing a detailed record of a building that no longer survives.