Near Eton College. In the Play Fields

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

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.
Charles Joseph Hullmandel was born in London; the son of a German composer and musician. He trained as an artist in Paris, before travelling on the continent. In 1817 he met J. A. Senefelder, the inventor of lithography, in Munich and changed the course of his career. His earliest published lithographs were ‘Twenty-Four Views of Italy’ (1818) and soon after this project he set up a lithographic press at his home in Great Marlborough Street. From then he worked as a lithographic draughtsman and printer. Most major improvements to lithography in Britain of the 1820s and ‘30s are attributed to him and he became the finest lithographer and most prolific printer. In 1827 he married flower painter Valentine Bartholomew. He died in London aged 61.

Places

England, Eton, Berkshire

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, Victorian Genre, tree, river, boy, woman, student, field, path

Materials & Techniques

lithograph, colour lithograph

Artist

William Westall (1781 - 1850)
Charles Joseph Hullmandel (1789 - 1850)

Title

Near Eton College. In the Play Fields

Date

published 1 December 1821

Medium

Colour lithograph

Acquisition

Purchased from Geoffrey Glynn, August 1960

GAC number

5326