View of Fulham Bridge and Putney Church from Nature

Perhaps better known as Putney Bridge, Fulham Bridge connected the south side of Putney with the north side of Fulham. The wooden structure shown here was built by a local master carpenter, probably to designs by the architect Sir Jacob Acworth, and opened in 1729.

James Miller's watercolour shows the bridge stretching across from Fulham to the parish church of St. Mary's in Putney and its neighbouring buildings. On the foreshore men can be seen aboard a boat and fishing, along with a woman and a dog. Another boat is shown on the opposite riverbank while a sailing boat travels away from the bridge.

A painter of topographical subjects, James Miller exhibited his views of London at the Incorporated Society of Artists and at the Royal Academy during the 1770s and 1780s. Only a relatively small number of paintings and drawings have been assigned to Miller and it has been suggested that some of his works have erroneously been attributed to other topographical artists of the period.