Covent Garden Piazza and Market, London

Covent Garden Piazza and Market, painted in 1753, records Inigo Jones's great Italianate square, designed in the 1630s, by the time it had evolved from an aristocratic residential development into London's principal fruit and vegetable market. Scott's urban views, though less numerous than his Thames scenes, provide invaluable records of Georgian London's public spaces. Samuel Scott occupied the commanding position in British marine and topographical painting for three decades, filling the gap left by the death of the van de Veldes and not finally superseded until the emergence of Nicholas Pocock and J.M.W. Turner.

The architectural perspective follows the veduta tradition Scott adapted from Canaletto, who had worked in London from 1746 to 1755 and directly influenced Scott's approach to urban topography.