England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent's Birthday is an 1819 painting by the English artist J. M. W. Turner.[1] It was displayed at the 1819 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition at Somerset House, the largest work that Turner had yet presented.[2] It depicts a real event on Richmond Hill hosted by Lady Cardigan at Cardigan House on 12 August 1817 to celebrate the birthday of the Prince Regent. Petersham Meadows by the bend in the River Thames is in the background. Just across the river in Twickenham was Turner's own house Sandycombe Lodge. Ham House is also visible in the distance. The work appears to show the Regent just off the canvas as several of the guests turn to look.[3] Turner's biographer James Hamilton describes it as featuring "flighty Watteauesque figures, ideal evanescent trees, and a horizon so extended as to be unreal".[4] It may have been an attempt to secure the Regent's patronage.[5] He did subsequently receive his only royal commission for the naval painting The Battle of Trafalgar in 1822.
After completing the work Turner embarked on a lengthy visit to Italy which significantly altered his style concerning the use of light. It is now in the Tate Britain, and was part of the Turner Bequest in 1856.[6]
