Rowlandson’s Richmond Bridge, Surrey documents a picnic party at low tide on the Thames’s sandy shore opposite Hampton Court.
It was common for Londoners to hire a water taxi to transport picnicker out of the city and into the country for an afternoon of eating and conversation. The party over, a carriage was hired to take the picnickers back to London.
Featured Image: Thomas Rowlandson. Richmond Bridge, London. The date is uncertain. I’m not sure if this print was recolored and intensified. Other versions are bland and perhaps unfinished.
Also J.M.W. Turner’s view of picnickers on the Thames sands at Richmond