The Painted Hall at Greenwich RMG BHC1814

The Painted Hall at Greenwich
An interior sketch showing an impression of the stairs leading up from the entrance vestibule towards the columned east end of the Painted Hall at Greenwich. On the left a woman and a boy (perhaps a naval cadet) stand in front of the entry pay table or counter and several Greenwich Hospital Pensioners have been depicted in the foreground leaning on sticks. To the right some of the paintings of the Naval Gallery in the Painted Hall (now the Greenwich Hospital Collection, largely held in the care of the National Maritime Museum) are depicted lining the walls. One pensioner on the right leans against the rail in front of the pictures and another stands at the foot of the stairs looking out towards the viewer. The painted ceiling of Sir James Thornhill has been suggested in the main hall above the stairs, with the archway to the Upper Hall beyond in the background. The artist created a series of paintings of Greenwich; see also BHC1814, BHC1830 and BHC1832. This one is in fact a late recollection of the Hall as it was, possibly before 1845 and almost certainly before 1858 when Richard Westmacott's marble monument to the lost Franklin expedition of 1845 (now in the Chapel vestibule) was installed against the left hand wall here.

The Painted Hall at Greenwich