John Bluck (early 19th century) after Frederick Nash (1782 – 1856)
Crypt of St Peter’s Church, Oxford (1813)

Aquatint with original hand colouring
21 x 27 cm

Published by Rudolph Ackermann (1764 – 1834).

Frederick Nash was born in Lambeth. He studied architectural drawing under Thomas Malton and then enrolled at the Royal Academy of Arts. From 1801 to 1809 he worked with the antiquarians John Britton and Edward Wedlake Brayley, subsequently becoming a member of the Society of Painters in Watercolours – a group of painters who had left the Royal Academy following complaints of under-recognition of their works. Nash became primarily a landscape painter and toured the rivers of Germany.

John Bluck was an aquatint engraver, mainly of topographical views, but also of marine and sporting subjects after his contemporaries. He produced plates for numerous publications.

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; trimmed close to platemark at bottom.

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