Piper took photographs of and made drawings and notes on Blenheim Palace in early 1938, as part of his research for the original Oxfordshire Shell Guide, edited by the Artist and John Betjeman and this work dates from this period. Later in 1980, he was commissioned by the 11th Duke of Marlborough to paint Blenheim Palace and the surrounding parkland in 1980. Jeri Bapasola, the archivist at Blenheim Palace considers ‘ John Piper’s paintings of Blenheim Place represent some of the most striking 20th-century images of the house’ (Jeri Bapasola, Oxford Mail, 2012).

Piper is famed particularly for his ability to render so effectively, the sentiment of a place. In this work, he characteristically makes use of multiple mediums including watercolour, ink and pastel and wax-resist. He depicts in moody hues, the drama of Sir John Vanbrugh’s baroque architecture of Blenheim’s Northern Portico and The Great Court. Piper’s concern here is not with showing the architectural detail of these buildings, but rather an impression of the brooding power of this baroque palace. With just a few lines and delineations, Piper renders the unmistakable outlines of this famous portico with its pallisters and pillars and roof-lined statues, most notably a barely discernible Britannia with two reclining chained French captives on the pediment and the glint of the golden globe behind.

Blenheim was built to impress, to permeate power and strength with its lofty structures towering over the surrounding landscape - a tribute to the strength of the nation and the Marlboroughs. Piper here captures the force and dominance of this building presenting it as darkness encroaches, gleaming through the hazy shadows as the last rays of the setting sun reflect off the solid stone structures.