A watercolour view of the Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House. The watercolour shows an ornamental ceiling with neo-stucco work in gilt, crimson satin damask walls, curtains and furniture, huge chandeliers, a blue velvet carpet, mirrors between  the windows on the left hand side and a black marble chimney piece.

Prepared for one of the plates in William Henry Pyne's 'History of the Royal Residences' (1816-1819). Engraved by Sutherland, the print published 1.10.1816. Pyne's 'History of the Royal Residences' was a three-volume publication which encompassed a number of royal residences, including Windsor Castle (vol. 1), Buckingham House (vol. 2),  and Carlton House (vol. 3) presenting 100 hand-coloured engravings of exteriors and interiors accompanied by descriptive texts. The 100 watercolours which were engraved for the publication survive in the Royal Library; these watercolours are exactly the size of the image on the printed plates, and may perhaps have been intended as colour guides for the artists responsible for hand-painting the monochrome prints.

The two most important paintings visible here are hung as a pair on the left wall, either side of the door: Rubens’s landscape with St George (left, 405356) and Bol’s double portrait, then thought to be a Rembrandt (right, 406574). The three overdoors are Lawrence’s Lord Thurlow (left wall, 400712), Reynolds’s Lord Erskine (opposite wall, left, 400688) and Hoppners Dr Markham (opposite wall, right, 400563).