This view of the Alcantara Bridge across the river Tagus was inspired by David Roberts’s seminal tour of Spain in 1832 – 3, but was painted for Queen Victoria many years later. Roberts’s oil painting is indebted to J.M.W. Turner’s watercolour Florence from San Miniato (British Museum). Turner had been an early supporter of the artist, and he and Roberts became close friends in the 1830s. Commissioned by Queen Victoria and given to Prince Albert on her birthday, 24 May 1841