Astronomical Observatory

Location

Country: Denmark
City: Copenhagen
Place: British Embassy

William Westall was born in Hertford; the son of a brewer and brother of Richard, RA. He enrolled at the Royal Academy schools in 1799 and was later draughtsman for a voyage to Australia and the South Seas. After being shipwrecked he travelled to Canton in China and to India, staying in Bombay for several months. He returned to England in 1805 but later set off for Madeira and Jamaica. He became a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours (1811) and an associate of the Academy (1812). Following a mental breakdown he regularly visited the Lake District and published ‘Views of the Valley and Vale of Keswick’ (1820). His series of aquatints of the Thames, universities and public schools for Ackermann are among his most popular works.
Joseph Constantine Stadler was a prolific German émigré engraver of images after his contemporaries. His engravings are wide-ranging in subject matter and include landscapes, seascapes and portraits, as well as military, sporting and decorative subjects. Stadler was employed by the leading print publisher of the time, John Boydell (1720-1804). On 23 March 1799 Stadler married Ann Elizabeth Sandman at St Anne’s Church, Soho, in London. He was living in Knightsbridge when he died at the age of 73.

Places

England, Oxford: Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, Oxfordshire

Subjects

topography, tree, astronomy, academic gown, garden, lawn, university, observatory

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, colour aquatint

Artist

William Westall (1781 - 1850)
Joseph Constantine Stadler (1755 - 1828)

Title

Astronomical Observatory

Date

published 1 April 1814

Medium

Colour aquatint

Acquisition

Purchased from Geoffrey Glynn, June 1960

GAC number

5144