Somerset House seen from the Thames

An admirer of the sweeping cityscapes popularised by Venetian artists, Edward Dayes depicted London with similar grandeur in his highly finished watercolours. His ideas of compositional balance used linear opposites and warm and cool colours to convey opposing emotions. This is demonstrated in the contrast between the carefully ruled stonework of buildings and the undulating contours of waves and clouds. On the far left, Dayes shows the incomplete south block of Somerset House before the construction of the Victoria Embankment in 1865.