General Post Office, St. Martin’s le Grand

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Watercolourist and painter William Simpson was born in Glasgow, the son of a marine engineer and mechanic. He trained as a lithographer under David Macfarlane and later Allan and Ferguson, and also studied at the Glasgow School of Design. In 1851 he moved to London to work for the lithographers Day & Son. He was sent to cover the Crimean War in 1854, after which he became known as ‘Crimean Simpson’. In 1866 he became an artist for the ‘Illustrated London News’, travelling in India, Russia and Afghanistan, and covering several major military campaigns of the 19th century. In 1874 he became a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolour. He was also an amateur archaeologist and a prolific writer. Simpson died in London, aged 75.
Landscape lithographer and painter Thomas Picken was the younger brother of draughtsman and lithographer Andrew (1815-1845). The brothers were two of four sons of novelist Andrew Picken (1788-1833) and his wife Janet Coxon (1792-1871). Thomas made lithographs for David Roberts's ‘The Holy Land’ (1842-49), William Payne's ‘The Lake Scenery of England’ (1859), John Parker Lawson's ‘Scotland Delineated’ (1847-54) and other works. He exhibited one painting at the Royal Academy in 1857 and ten at the Society of Artists, Suffolk Street (1846-75). Although generally thought to have emigrated to Australia in 1870, a 2004 entry in the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’ reports that he was an inmate of the Charterhouse, London, from 1879.

Places

England, London, St. Paul's Cathedral, City of London, General Post Office, St. Martin's-le-Grand

Subjects

carriage, cart, wagon, topography, townscape/cityscape, Victorian Genre, horse, boy, man, woman, girl, 19th century costume, dress, smock, trousers, parasol, hat, basket, road, signage, railing, street, pavement, post office, shop, church, cathedral, chimney, chair, table (as Subject)

Materials & Techniques

lithograph, coloured lithograph

Artist

William Simpson (1823 - 1899)
Thomas Picken (1815 - 1870)

Title

General Post Office, St. Martin’s le Grand

Date

published 1 May 1852

Medium

Coloured lithograph

Acquisition

Presented by Sir Nigel Ronald, January 1954

GAC number

15876