Catalogue of a collection of early drawings and pictures of London: With some contemporary furnitureBurlington Fine Arts Club
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Catalogue of a collection of early drawings and pictures of London: With some contemporary furniture
Burlington Fine Arts Club
Art -- Exhibitions; London (England) -- Pictorial works -- Catalogs
Watercolour. 23¾ by 16½ in.
A lottery in the Rotunda of the Bank of England.
Between 1709 and 1824 the Government raised large sums from lotteries
authorized by Act of Parliament.
By T. ROWLANDSON (1756-1827).
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
52 BARTHOLOMEW FAIR.
Watercolour. 13 by 8¾ in.
In Smithfield, entrance of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital on the left.
The fair is in progress: there are booths, swings, etc., and many
figures. St. Sepulchre’s Church-tower in the distance.
In the same frame is an etching of the subject by Rowlandson, to
which colour has been crudely added.
By T. ROWLANDSON, 1807 (1756-1827).
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
53 SAVOY RUINS.
Wash drawing in sepia. 12¼ by 8¼ in.
The Savoy near the Strand was a house or palace built in 1245 by
Peter, Earl of Savoy and Richmond, uncle of Eleanor, wife to Henry
III. John, King of France, was imprisoned there after the battle of
Poictiers. When in the hands of John of Gaunt it was burnt by Wat
Tyler and his followers. After this it appears to have been neglected,
till in 1505 Henry VII endowed it as a Hospital of St. John Baptist
for the relief of poor people. Suppressed in 1553, and re-endowed by
Queen Mary Tudor, seventeenth century plans show an important river
frontage. It was maintained as a hospital until 1702, but Strype in
1720 describes it as being partly a prison; in another portion was
“the King’s printing press for proclamations,” etc. After gradual
decay the last remains of the building were destroyed in the earlier
years of the nineteenth century.
The arches in mid-distance most likely belong to Blackfriars Bridge.
Waterloo Bridge, first called Strand Bridge, was begun in 1811.
We may call to mind that the gifted artist who drew this, and died at
the age of twenty-seven, was born in the same year as W. M. Turner,
whose well-known saying, “if Tom Girtin had lived I should have
starved,” is a fine tribute to his genius.
By T. GIRTIN (1775-1802).
_Lent by Mr. T. Girtin._
54 DRURY LANE THEATRE.
Watercolour. 9 by 5¾ in.
The first theatre on this site was opened by the King’s Company in
1663, and was burnt down in 1672. The next, designed by Sir Christopher
Wren, was opened in 1674 and was new-faced by the brothers Adam. A
third theatre, designed by H. Holland, was opened in 1794 and burnt
down in 1809. James and Horace Smith’s “Rejected Addresses” were
burlesque prologues for the fourth theatre, designed by Benjamin
Dean Wyatt, which is here portrayed. It was opened 10 October 1812,
with a prologue by Lord Byron, whose style the Smiths had parodied.
The portico in Brydges Street, now Catherine Street, was added when
Elliston was lessee, and the colonnade, Little Russell Street, in 1831.
This is the original of an engraving in Wilkinson’s “Londina
Illustrata.” Whichelo, who painted it, devoted himself to topographical
and afterwards marine subjects. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and
was for many years member of the Old Watercolour Society. He died in
1865.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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