View from One-Tree Hill, Greenwich Park

Signed with initials, lower right 'MM 1810' and inscribed in ink on the reverse of the original card backing 'View from one tree [sic] Hill Greenwich Park / M. M.' This view looks north-west from the west side of One-Tree Hill in Greenwich Park up Deptford Reach towards London, with the dome of St Paul's Cathedral in the distance. The twin domes of Greenwich Hospital (now the Old Royal Naval College) appear above the dense trees in the lower part of the Park at centre right. Deer are shown under the trees in the right foreground and a few Park visitors are in the open grass area to the left. The man sitting on the slope of the hill would, classically for such a view, be a Greenwich Pensioner but is perhaps not in this case: the detail is unclear and his coat is brown, though this may be colour degradation from blue since the whole drawing is badly light stained from long over-exposure. It is the pair to ZBA5088. Both are by Margaret Maskelyne (1786 -1858), only child of Nevil Maskelyne, fifth Astronomer Royal at Greenwich from 1765 to 1811: she was born and lived at the Observatory until her father's death. In 1819 she married Anthony Mervyn Reeve Story (1791-1879), both adopting the name Story-Maskelyne. [PvdM 3/13]

Object Details

ID: ZBA5099
Type: Watercolour
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Maskelyne, Margaret
Places: London
Date made: circa 1809-10; 1810
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Maritime Museum, 2012
Measurements: Secondary support: 354 mm x 324 mm; Primary support: 319 mm x 471 mm; Mount: 610 mm x 838 mm