St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Charles Wickes was born in Charlton, Kent; the son of a merchant. The family moved to Cambridgeshire and then to Leicester, where Wickes trained as an architect before entering into partnership with William Flint. They were responsible for work to King’s Norton Church (1850) and the Corn Exchange (1850) in Leicester, before the partnership was dissolved in 1853. Wickes drew ‘Illustrations of the Spires and Towers of the Medieval Churches’ (published 1854-55) and wrote ‘Memorials of English Medieval Churches’ (1857) and ‘Villa Architecture’ (1859-62). However, by 1863 he was wanted for having fraudulently withdrawn some £1,800 using a forged cheque book. He served 15 years at Millbank Prison, Pimlico, and Parkhurst, on the Isle of Wight.
Lithographer and photographer Francis Bedford was born in London; the son of an architect. From his late teens he exhibited drawings of architectural subjects at the Royal Academy (1833-49) and, through his early career, illustrated publications on ecclesiastical architecture. He was later employed by Day and Sons to transfer drawings onto lithographic stones for printing. With a team of assistants, he completed the 100 plates for Owen Jones’s ‘Grammar of Ornament’ (1856). From c.1853 Bedford took up photography. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert later bought and commissioned examples of his photography work. Bedford served as the vice-president of the Photographic Society in 1861 and in 1878. He died at home in Islington, at the age of 78.

Places

England, Oxfordshire

Subjects

horseback, topography, horse, boy, man, woman, 19th century costume, academic gown, dress, parasol, top hat, student, street, house, church, church windows, spire

Materials & Techniques

lithograph, coloured lithograph

Artist

Charles Wickes (1828 - )
Francis Bedford (1816 - 1894)

Title

St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford

Date

Medium

Coloured lithograph

Acquisition

Purchased from the Parker Gallery, March 1969

GAC number

8349