Daniel Havell (1785 – 1822) after Frederick Mackenzie (1788 – 1854)
West Entrance to the Chapel of Magdalen College (1814)

Hand-coloured aquatint
24 x 29 cm

Published by Rudolph Ackermann (1764 – 1834).

An engraving of the glorious entrance to Magdalen Chapel from St John’s Quad.

Frederick Mackenzie (circa 1788 – 1854) was a British watercolourist and architectural draughtsman. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1804, and contributed eleven drawings between that year and 1828. He contributed to the Society of Painters in Water Colours exhibitions from 1813, becoming an associate in 1822, and a full member the following year. From 30 November 1831 until, his death he was treasurer to the society. In later life Mackenzie was no longer commissioned to illustrate books.

Daniel Havell was a member of the Havell family of Reading, Berkshire, England, which included a number of notable engravers, etchers and painters, as well as writers, publishers, educators, and musicians. Daniel and his brother Robert set up in partnership as aquatint engravers. Soon Daniel began to work independently, engraving plates for Rudolph Ackermann’s History of Cambridge (1815) and hid history of various public schools including Eton, Winchester, and Rugby (1816), as well as a celebrated views of St Paul’s Cathedral (1818) and various other London landmarks for Ackermann’s Repository of Arts.

Rudolph Ackermann was an Anglo-German bookseller, inventor, lithographer, publisher and businessman. In 1795 he established a print-shop and drawing-school at 96 Strand. Here Ackermann set up a lithographic press and began a trade in prints. He later began to manufacture colours and thick carton paper for landscape and miniature painters. Within three years the premises had become too small and he moved to 101 Strand, in his own words “four doors nearer to Somerset House”, the seat of the Royal Academy of Arts. Between 1797 and 1800 Ackermann rapidly developed his print and book publishing business, encompassing many different genres including topography, caricature, portraits, transparencies and decorative prints.

Condition: Generally very good.

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