Pieter Angellis (Dunkirk 1685-1734 Rennes)

This lively view of Covent Garden is taken from the South-East of the piazza, the Russell Street end, looking West towards Inigo Jones's church of St. Paul's, completed in 1633, with Henrietta Street to the left and King Street to the right. The doric column and sundial surmounted by a sphere was erected in the centre of the piazza in 1668-9, but was later demolished in 1790. To the right, the Northern side of the square is bordered by Lord Archer's house and the arches of the great piazza, while the Southern side is lined with fruit and vegetable stalls. The figure in the central foreground is believed to be Catherine Tipping, wife of Thomas, 1st Lord Archer, Baron of Umberslade.

Covent Garden expanded rapidly in the 1720s, 1730s and 1740s, becoming a popular subject with London artists, notably Samuel Scott (c. 1702-1772) and Balthasar Nebot (1730-1765), who were attracted by the vibrant cross-section of urban life it hosted. Angellis, who was one of the artists listed by Vertue as having lived in Covent Garden in 1726 (The Walpole Society, XXII, 1933-34, p. 30), painted this view on a number of occasions, another version of the subject is in the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, Yale.