THOMAS SHOTTER BOYS
London 1803 – 1874 London
During two extended stays in Paris during the period 1823-1837,
Boys worked as a lithographer for several publishers and at the same time,
through the influence of his friend Richard Parkes Bonington, increasingly
as an original watercolour artist, exhibiting at the Paris Salon annually 1825-33
and in 1835.
As
a practitioner of lithography he had become
interested in the then still very new technique
of tint stones for creating colour lithographs.
On
his permanent return to London in 1837 Shotter
Boys began the work of translating into colour
lithographs twenty-nine of his own watercolour
drawings to make up his Picturesque Architecture
in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen etc.
Each
print demanded multiple stones, usually a
different stone for each colour to be employed.
Boys drew all the stones himself. The series
was printed in London by Charles Hullmandel,
a specialist lithographic printer and published
(and financed) by Shotter Boys’ cousin, Thomas Boys. A pioneering work,
fifty years ahead of its time, it was both complex and expensive in its production.
The earliest artist’s colour lithographs, they created a sensation
on their publication, even though they were not a hugely financial success.
When King Louis of France was presented with a set he gave the publisher a diamond
ring in appreciation, somewhat to the chagrin of both the overlooked artist and the printer.
Rue Notre Dame, Paris
Von Groschwitz 24x
370 x 261 mm
Original
colour lithograph, c 1837-9.
Initialled in
the key stone.
Published 1839 for Picturesque Architecture
in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen etc.
The only
edition.
On a large wove sheet, foxed and
soiled in the margins. The image generally
in good condition.
Sold
A
distant view of Notre Dame. An artist’s colourman has premises next
to the bootseller.
Return to top ^ |
