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Description: | Coloured aquatint. St Paul’s Cathedral is depicted as it was more than 200 years ago in this aquatint print by Thomas Malton junior. The statue of Queen Anne in front of the cathedral steps is seen to the right of the composition. The version of the statue depicted is the original sculpture by Francis Bird (1667-1731), completed in 1712. By 1885 it was showing signs of deterioration and was replaced by a near replica, made by sculptor Richard Claude Belt (1851-1920). The original was saved from destruction by 19th-century travel writer Augustus Hare and is still located in the grounds of his former home, Holmhurst, in Baldslow, Sussex. However, it is now further deteriorated and is on English Heritage’s ‘Heritage at Risk’ Register.
This aquatint print is taken from a series of 100 plates titled ‘A Picturesque Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster’, published between 1792 and 1801. The series is remarkable for all the plates being drawn, engraved and aquatinted by the same artist. Malton’s ‘Picturesque Tour’ was the first considerable collection of topographical and architectural drawings of London to be reproduced as aquatints and also the first British publication to assemble such a large number of aquatint prints. | Subjects: | genre railing shop church shop-front dome table house girl topography woman cathedral dog townscape/cityscape man | Temporal: | 1801 | Source: | Government Art Collection | Creator: | Thomas Malton jnr | Identifier: | http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/work.aspx?... | Go to resource |
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