Lot 2333
‡STANHOPE ALEXANDER FORBES, RA (1857-1947)
STUDY FOR `THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SECOND ROYAL EXCHANGE IN 1838`
Signed and dated 1920, oil on canvas
110 x 77cm.
* From 1892, twenty four subjects were commissioned as murals for the walls on the first floor of the Royal Exchange. These ranged across the centuries in subject matter and included works by Frederic, Lord Leighton showing Phoenicians trading with early Britons (1895) through to Lucy Kemp-Welch's 1922 `Women's Work in the Great War`. Forbes's commission dated from 1899 so the later date of this picture implies that there were delays in bringing it to fruition. The fire in question is believed to have started in a stove in Lloyd's coffee house on nearby Lombard Street on January 10th 1838; the night was so bitterly cold that hoses and tenders had to be de-iced before they could be activated and flames were said to be visible at Windsor, 24 miles away. Grenadier Guards were seconded from The Tower of London to prevent crowds of spectators from getting too close to the inferno.
