Great Fire of London

This painting shows a view of the Great Fire as imagined between eight and nine o'clock on the evening of Tuesday, 4 September 1666, from a boat in the vicinity of Tower Wharf. The viewpoint selected which was the safest for sketching and authentic details like the minutely observed sparks scattered high over the city, suggest that the unknown artist may have been an eyewitness of the event. Likewise certain topographical details which could not have been learnt from other pictures or engravings demonstrate that the artist knew London.