The New Custom House, from Billingsgate

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: HM Revenue & Customs, 100 Parliament Street

Thomas Hosmer Shepherd was born in London; the son of a watchcase maker. His elder brother was watercolourist George Sidney Shepherd, with whom he collaborated in 1813 on street views for Ackermann’s ‘Repository of the Arts’. He went on to build his reputation on depictions of fashionable cities. He made numerous sketching tours and, in 1818, visited France. He worked for Jones & Co. (1826-31), producing some 450 plates for the firm in total. He also worked as a drawing master. After 1842 he received regular commissions from the ‘Illustrated London News’ but still struggled financially. Collector Frederick Crace commissioned numerous watercolours of London sites from the artist (now in the British Museum). He died in Islington, aged c. 71.

Places

England, River Thames, London, Billingsgate, City of London, Custom House

Subjects

rowing boat, topography, townscape/cityscape, Victorian Genre, dog, river, boy, man, woman, basket, street, government building, sailboat

Materials & Techniques

engraving, coloured engraving

Artist

Thomas Hosmer Shepherd (1791 - 1864)
William Tombleson (c1795 - )

Title

The New Custom House, from Billingsgate

Date

published 30 August 1828

Medium

Coloured engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Peter Murray Hill, July 1973

GAC number

10578