A view of the building known as School (built 1682-87) from the north, with figures in Scholar’s gowns in the foreground. The walls on either side have since been removed. St Cross Hospital is visible in the distance. This painting must date from shortly before 1697, when Caius Gabriel Cibber gave a bronze statue of William Wykeham to go above the main door of School. It shows an empty niche, almost certainly made to a design by Cibber, ready to receive the statue.

William Barfoot (or Barefoot) first appears in the Bursar’s Accounts in 1684-5, and references to him continue until 1713-14. This picture is attributed on the basis of similarities with a birds-eye view of the College (Ao13), commissioned from Barfoot by Warden Nicholas in 1694.

This is probably one of the two paintings ‘of perspective’ referred to in the 1734 inventory of the Warden’s Picture Gallery (with Ao13).

Provenance: Unknown, by 1734

Location: Headmaster’s Offices