North Aisle, Westminster Abbey

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

George Sidney Shepherd was born in Finsbury, London; the son of a watchmaker. He is thought to have attended Dr Cox Macro’s sketching academy and he exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1800. In 1807 he made studies for Britton’s ‘Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain’ and also illustrated Booth’s ‘Architectural Series of London Churches’ (1818) and Wilkinson’s ‘Londina Illustrata’ (1824–34). With brother, Thomas Hosmer, he made views for Ackermann’s ‘Repository of the Arts’ in 1813. From 1832 he exhibited at the Society of British Artists. He was later a founder member of the New Society of Painters in Watercolour. By the 1840s his style had become more impressionistic. He was twice widowed by the time of his death in 1861.
Thomas Sutherland was a prominent aquatint engraver who specialised in sporting, coaching, naval and military subjects, as well as topographical views. His engravings were generally made after the designs of contemporary artists. His best known works are some of the 105 illustrations to Rudolf Ackermann’s ‘The Microcosm of London’ (completed in three volumes in 1810). Sutherland also produced a series of prints based on the Peninsular Battles of 1808 to 1814. He lived and worked in London.

Places

England, London, Westminster

Subjects

statue (as Subject), sculpture (as Subject), topography, male portrait, gravestone, monument, abbey, church, religious/ecclesiastical interior

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, colour aquatint

Artist

George Sidney Shepherd (1784 - 1862)
Thomas Sutherland (1785 - 1838)

Title

North Aisle, Westminster Abbey

Date

published 1 August 1812

Medium

Colour aquatint

Acquisition

Purchased from Baynton-Williams, January 1978

GAC number

13580