English: "A Gibbet on the River Thames" by Thomas Rowlandson, circa 1790

Watercolour with pen and ink 5 ¾ × 9 1/16 inches · 145 × 230 mm Drawn c.1790

"Rowlandson’s watercolour shows four corpses exposed on one of the gibbets that lined the upper reaches of the Thames. Rowlandson has included spectators, both on the shore and in a small boat, underscoring the fact that the bodies of criminals formed an ever-present spectacle in eighteenth-century London. This watercolour is an exceptionally rare contemporary depiction of a gibbet, one of a small group that Rowlandson made towards the end of the century.

A further watercolour by Rowlandson depicting the same structure is inscribed ‘Pirates hanging at the Isle of Dogs’ confirming that the present work depicts a gibbet on the Thames. The Admiralty Courts dealt with capital crimes committed at sea - murder, mutiny or piracy - most executions were carried out in London at Execution Dock, and the body then moved to be displayed in a gibbet.

Rowlandson’s watercolour seems likely to show a stretch of the river east of Greenwich where gibbets formed iconic landmarks. "