John Stevens Art

Dawn Seascape Painting with Pink Sky and Waves by 20th Century British Artist, Norman Scott Art measures 16 x 12 inches Frame measures 18 x 14 inches Vintage Original Oil on Boar...

Naval Shipping in Stormy Seas English School, 18th century circle of Charles Brooking, (1723-1759) oil painting on canvas: 16.5 x 21.5 inches Morland ...

Portrait of the Long-Haired Black Labrador, 19th Century, English School This distinguished portrait of a long-haired black Labrador is attributed to the circle of John Ferneley (18...

Roman painter (18th century) - Landscape with wayfarers. 43.5 x 34.5 cm without frame, 58.5 x 49.5 cm with frame. Antique oil painting on canvas, in a carved and gilded wooden fram...

English Countryside with Cottage & River by British Landscape Artist, Lesley Hammett (Born 1955) Art measures 16 x 12 inches Frame measures 19 x 15 inches This painting captures th...

The Winding River by Andrew Grant Kurtis (British, 20th century) signed oil on canvas, framed Framed: 25.5 x 35.5 inches Canvas: 20 x 30 inches Provenance: Private collection, UK Con...

Dutch school, follower of Herman van SWANEVELT (1603-1655), Shepherds and their flock on a path, oil on canvas, circa 1700 – good condition Wooden frame Canvas without frame : Height...

Cottage in a Lush Garden with Hens in the English Countryside by 20th Century British Artist, Terry Heath (1943-2011) Art measures 20 x 16 inches Frame measures 26 x 22 inches S...

Winter Sunset with Snow - Pink, Orange & Purple Sky in the English Countryside by British Landscape Artist, Stephen Hawkins (1964-) Art measures 12 x 10 inches Frame measures 16 x...

Charles Towne (1763-1840) A bay hunter in a landscape signed and dated 'Charles Towne Pinxit 1816' lower left Oil on canvas Painting Size - 20 x 26 Framed Size - 25 x 31 in Provena...

Condition: The paintings are in overall very good and sound condition, with age related craquelure running throughout. Framed in period frames.

The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was one of the greatest disasters in the city’s history. The City, with its wooden houses crowded together in narrow streets, was a natural fire risk, and predictions that London would burn down became a shocking reality. The fire began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, an area near the Thames teeming with warehouses and shops full of flammable materials, such as timber, oil, coal, pitch and turpentine. Inevitably the fire spread rapidly from this area into the City. Our painting depicts the impact of the fire on those who were caught in it and creates a very dramatic impression of what the fire was like. Closer inspection reveals a scene of chaos and panic with people running out of the gates. It shows Cripplegate in the north of the City, with St Giles without Cripplegate to its left, in flames (on the site of the present day Barbican). The painting probably represents the fire on the night of Tuesday 4 September, when four-fifths of the City was burning at once, including St Paul's Cathedral. Old St Paul’s can be seen to the right of the canvas, the medieval church with its thick stone walls, was considered a place of safety, but the building was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was in the midst of being restored by the then little known architect, Christopher Wren and caught fire. Our painting seems to depict a specific moment on the Tuesday night when the lead on St Paul’s caught fire and, as the diarist John Evelyn described: ‘the stones of Paul’s flew like grenades, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with the firey redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.’ Although the loss of life was minimal, some accounts record only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was shocking – some four hundred and thirty acres, about eighty per cent of the City proper was destroyed, including over thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and fifty-two Guild Halls. Thousands were homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the subsequent fire of 1676, which destroyed over six hundred houses south of the Thames, changed the appearance of London forever. The one constructive outcome of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had devastated the population of London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze. The fire was widely reported in eyewitness accounts, newspapers, letters and diaries. Samuel Pepys recorded climbing the steeple of Barking Church from which he viewed the destroyed City: ‘the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw.’ There was an official enquiry into the causes of the fire, petitions to the King and Lord Mayor to rebuild, new legislation and building Acts. Naturally, the fire became a dramatic and extremely popular subject for painters and engravers. A group of works relatively closely related to the present picture have been traditionally ascribed to Jan Griffier...