Windsor Castle on the Thames, Antique Engraving after Birket Foster, circa 1876

Windsor Castle crowns its hill in this river view, with the Round Tower at the center and the long line of towers and chapel roofs spreading to the right beneath a dramatic, cloud-filled sky. The Thames winds toward the viewer between reedy banks, rowing boats move on the water, and the roofs of the town gather at the foot of the castle on the left. In the foreground a pair of swans with their cygnets glide past a moored boat, where a man leans over the side. The eye is carried step by step from the swans in the foreground, past the boats on the open water, up to the walls on the skyline, and ducks paddle along the reeds at the lower left.

The plate is lettered "Windsor Castle." Windsor, on the Thames west of London, has been a royal residence since the reign of William the Conqueror and is the oldest continuously occupied royal castle in Europe. The drawing is credited to Birket Foster, the popular Victorian watercolorist, and the engraving to A. Willmore, and the sheet bears the imprint of Cassell, Petter & Galpin of London.

This is a steel engraving printed in black on wove paper, uncolored. Willmore balances the strong contrasts of the stormy sky with the bright, sunlit castle walls, and the reflections, ripples and reeds of the river are engraved with great delicacy.

A classic English subject, it fits easily into a traditional interior and would look elegant above a sideboard or desk in a gilt frame with an ivory mat.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.