A West View of Highbury Place

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Robert Dodd was the son of Alexander Dodd, of whom little is known. Robert began his career in London as a landscape painter, but later turned to marine scenes. By 1772, the year he married Mary Fulton, he was living in Wapping, east London. He first showed his work at the Society of Artists in 1780 and, in 1782, began exhibiting at the Royal Academy. Many of his paintings depict battles of the French Revolutionary Wars or the American War of Independence. He also painted ship portraits and scenes of the River Thames and of London’s naval dockyards. From about 1783, he engraved and published aquatints after his own works. Towards the end of his life, Dodd lived near Commercial Street in east London. He died at about the age of 67.
Robert Pollard was born in Newcastle and apprenticed to a watchmaker. He moved to London in 1774 and trained under painter R. Wilson and engraver I. Taylor. By 1781 he had settled in Islington, where he set up as an engraver and publisher. His earliest prints were views of naval actions. Pollard frequently worked with engravers R. Dodd and N. Pocock and sometimes published his own designs. Many of his prints combine different methods of engraving, although aquatint was often added by a specialist. In 1789 he was elected Director of the Incorporated Society of Artists. Pollard moved to Lower Holloway in 1810, selling his print stock, but there he began publishing sporting views, mostly designed by his son James (1792-1867). He died aged 83.
Aquatint engraver Francis Jukes was born in Martley, Worcestershire. Nothing is known of his parents. He initially worked as a topographical painter, before becoming one of the first British aquatint engravers. He is thought to have learnt the method from Paul Sandby and some of his first aquatints are after Sandby’s designs. Dukes mainly produced prints of landscape or seascape subjects. He illustrated the Rev. William Gilpin’s ‘Observations on the River Wye’ (published 1782). His early prints were published in collaboration with Valentine Green and he later collaborated with Robert Pollard. Illness towards the end of his life may have been caused by fumes from the acid he used in the aquatinting process. He died in 1812, aged about 67.

Places

England, London, Islington, Highbury

Subjects

topography, landscape C18th, townscape/cityscape, tree, cow, hill, field, house, terrace

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, coloured aquatint

Artist

Robert Dodd (1748 - 1815)
Robert Pollard (1755 - 1838)
Francis Jukes (1745 - 1812)

Title

A West View of Highbury Place

Date

published 31 January 1787

Medium

Coloured aquatint

Dimensions

height: 44.50 cm, width: 57.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Frank T Sabin, August 1960

GAC number

5311