Original hand coloured engraving Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, London

Description:

Drawn by Joseph Farington RA, engraved by Joseph Constantine Stadler. Aquatint published by John & Josiah Boydell of London, dated June 1st 1793, Shakespeare Gallery, Pall Mall, & No. 90 Cheapside.

Strawberry Hill House often know as Strawberry Hill is internationally famous as Britain’s finest example of Georgian Gothic revival architecture. It was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797), the youngest son of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole.

Joseph Farington (1747-1821) was a landscape painter and an early member of the Royal Academy. As part of a project to produce a collection of picturesque views of the Thames executed in aquatint, Farington visited Strawberry Hill in the summer of 1793 where he drew this view of the house. The engraving was published in 'History of the River Thames', 1794, Volume II, Plate 47. This book became a famous and important work "although not the first coloured aquatint book, [it] was the first major one, and it was to set an example for the type of illustration that was to enjoy widespread popularity in England for some forty years" – S.H.A, Bruntjen , ‘John Boydell 1719-1804: A Study of Art Patronage and Publishing in Georgian London’.

Rear paper of frame specialist, John Tanous, 159-161 Draycott Avenue, Chelsea, SW3, c.1947.

Condition

Trimmed engraving (320x212mm), (small well repaired tear to corner), mounted on cream paper, glazed wooden frame (387x286mm). Frame showing some wear.