The Thames from Richmond Hill, London

Painted in 1905, this view captures one of London's most celebrated panoramas from Richmond Hill—a vista so treasured it would later become the only view in England protected by an Act of Parliament. By this time, Waterlow was at the peak of his career: he had been elected a Royal Academician in 1903 and had served as President of the Royal Watercolour Society since 1897, following decades of producing admirable landscapes handled with what critics called 'grace and distinction.'

Waterlow's approach to this iconic Thames view would have drawn on his deep training at the Royal Academy, where he won the Turner medal for landscape painting in 1873. The Richmond Hill prospect, looking down to where the Thames curves through meadows and woodland in southwest London, had attracted artists for generations. At age 55, Waterlow brought his mature technical skill to this classic subject, likely capturing the atmospheric effects and play of light on water that characterized his best work in both oil and watercolor. This painting represents the refined, traditional landscape aesthetic that made Waterlow one of Britain's most respected artists before his death in Hampstead in 1919, just two years after being knighted by King Edward VII.