Gezicht op het Palace of Westminster, gezien vanaf de overkant van de Theems c. 1850 - 1880

Valentine Blanchard created this stereograph of the Palace of Westminster in the 19th century. The stereograph was a popular form of entertainment, giving a three-dimensional view of a scene when looked at through a special viewer. This image presents the Houses of Parliament, the seat of British political power, from across the Thames. Its visual codes present the Palace as solid and immutable, a deliberate aesthetic choice that conveys the power of British government. The Houses of Parliament loom in the distance and the river is busy with commercial traffic, connecting government with both commerce and empire. The photograph can be situated in a time when the political class was still largely aristocratic, and Britain was expanding its colonial reach. These details can be researched through primary documents, such as newspapers, government records, and personal letters. This image, then, is a perfect reminder that art is not made in a vacuum, but in a specific social and institutional context.