South-west front, Lambeth Palace

This drawing is a rapidly executed sketch of Lambeth Palace, the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It was commissioned by Archbishop William Howley in 1833 as part of an album of drawings to mark some largescale renovation work to the Palace which he had been undertaking to improve the condition of the buildings. The artist, Henry William Burgess, (active 1809-39) was a notable landscape artist and careful draughtsman who became artist to William IV. He was particularly interested in the study of trees, as shown here and was employed by several nobleman to draw and record their estates.Henry William Burgess was a landscape painter based in London. He came from a family of British artists, and his own son John Bagnold (1829-1897) also became a painter.