This is an impressionistic work of one of the staircases in Clifford's Inn, an inn of Chancery,the law courts situated just north of Fleet Street. Part of the south elevation of the Hall can be seen on the left and just opposite stands the north wall of the Church of St. Dunstan-in-the-West. A couple are standing to the side of the church and a flock of birds can be seen in the immediate foreground.
A landscape and topographical painter, Henry Clifford (1861-1947) studied in Paris under Bouguereau, Constant and Fleury and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1892. He frequently recorded scenes which were about to disappear through rebuilding and later moved to Sussex where he drew many pastoral idyllic views of an idealised countryside. The Museum has another scene of London in the collection, ( A24289) A Scene in East Greenwich.
