Interior of the Royal Exchange

Location

Country: Norway
City: Oslo
Place: British Embassy

John Chapman was a painter who specialised in architectural views. He exhibited at the Society of Artists and the Royal Academy between 1772 and 1778. Little else is known of him. This painting is attributed to him on the basis of its similarity in style to a painting of Birdcage Walk, which is signed by Chapman.
Philip James de Loutherbourg, was born in Germany, the son of a miniaturist and engraver. The family moved to Paris in 1755 where he studied with Carle Van Loo and Jean-Georges Wille, before entering the studio of François Joseph Casanova. He left Paris in 1768 to travel through France, Switzerland and the Rhineland. In 1771 he arrived in London, where David Garrick gave him control of the scenery at Drury Lane Theatre. He remained at the theatre when Sheridan took over. In 1781, he became a member of the Royal Academy. He travelled throughout the UK on sketching tours and began painting naval victories in the 1790s. In 1807 he was made Historical Painter to the Duke of Gloucester. He died in Hammersmith, aged 71.
Francesco Bartolozzi was born in Italy. He became a pupil of the German painter and printmaker Joseph Wagner, then based in Venice. In 1764, he was invited to England by Frederick Augusta Barnard, King George III's Librarian. Although best known for copying Old Master drawings in the stipple technique (such as his reproductions of Guercino’s drawings in the Royal Collection), Bartolozzi also engraved plates after contemporary artists (notably Giovanni Battista Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann). He set up a studio in London, which produced large numbers of ‘furniture prints’ (generally set within a roundel or oval and intended for framing). In 1802 he left England to become Director of the Lisbon Academy in Portugal.

Places

England, London, City of London

Subjects

statue (as Subject), reading (as Subject), topography, genre, townscape/cityscape, dog, man, 18th century costume, tricorn hat, bicorn, Royal Exchange (as subject), arcade, public interior

Materials & Techniques

engraving, coloured engraving

Artist

John Chapman
Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740 - 1812)
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727 - 1815)

Title

Interior of the Royal Exchange

Date

Medium

Coloured engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Vicars Bros., March 1959

Inscription

GAC number

4890