The Frozen Thames, Looking Eastwards towards Old London Bridge, London

Abraham Hondius's The Frozen Thames from 1677, in the London Museum, documents one of the great frost fairs when the Thames froze solid enough for Londoners to hold markets, games, and celebrations on the ice. These events, which occurred periodically until the old London Bridge was demolished in 1831, were among the most remarkable spectacles of London life. Hondius, a Dutch painter who settled in London, brought the Dutch tradition of winter landscape painting to the depiction of this uniquely English phenomenon.

Hondius combines the Dutch winter scene tradition with specific London topography, rendering Old London Bridge and the frozen river with documentary precision. The lively figures on the ice and the cold, pale sky demonstrate his ability to adapt Dutch genre conventions to English subjects.