The Lord Mayor's Procession by Water to Westminster, London, 9 November

This picture is believed to show the river pageant when Alderman William Pickett became Lord Mayor in 1789. In accordance with tradition and attended by the Livery companies’ barges, he made his way by river to Westminster Hall to be sworn in before the Barons of the Exchequer, the party returning by water to Blackfriars and there resuming the procession to Guildhall by carriage. The tradition of the river pageant was abandoned in 1857.

Alderman Boydell presented this painting for display in the Common Council Chamber. Both Paton and Wheatley were artists to whom he regularly gave commissions. Paton, a largely untaught marine artist who painted four views of the siege and relief of Gibraltar, painted the background. Wheatley, best known for his ‘Cries of London’, had painted several historical pictures for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery; he added the foreground figures in this picture.