Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

Two lots available in Christie’s summer sale dovetail beautifully with Sotheby’s, so it’s a shame that they couldn’t be viewed together

- Huon Mallalieu

Two weeks ago, I devoted my column to the major summer sales at Sotheby’s. This week, it’s the turn of Christie’s and here, too, I will concentrate on older art. on these occasions, it seems sad that a lot offered by one house could not have been brought together with one at the other. It would have been fascinating to be able to view the Prévost panorama of westminster at Sotheby’s near James Miller’s watercolour, Whitehall looking southwards from the Banqueting House, at Christie’s (Fig 1).

Not much is known of Miller. He was probably a son of Johann Sebastian Müller (about 1715–92), who changed his name to John Miller in 1744 on settling in England as a flower painter and probably also faked old Master paintings. The son, working between 1773 and 1791, specialised in watercolour London views.

His lively figures are often out of scale, but we owe him thanks for the topographical information he provides. A great deal can be observed in his 181 ⁄2in by 225 ⁄8in Whitehall.

To the left is Banqueting House and, to the right, almost out of sight, is Horse Guards, then the army headquarters. A dispatch rider is galloping towards it, perhaps with news of the American war, and is likely to be held up by a carriage—on which Miller has signed his initials.

By Banqueting House is a family of buskers. The father is playing the border pipes (I think), not the Highland version, which would have had him gaoled, and wearing a shepherd’s plaid.