John Bluck (early 19th century) after Augustus Charles Pugin (1762 – 1832)
Hall of Queen’s College

Aquatint with original hand colouring
24 x 29 cm

Published by Rudolph Ackermann (1764 – 1834).

Augustus Charles Pugin was an Anglo-French artist and architectural draughtsman. Pugin produced views of London, jointly creating the illustrations for the ‘Microcosm of London’ published by Rudolph Ackermann in 1811, followed by plates for Ackermann’s books about Westminster Abbey, Oxford and Cambridge universities, and Winchester College. His later works included illustrations for Specimens of Gothic Architecture (1821–1823), The Royal Pavilion at Brighton (1826), Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain (1826), Specimens of the Architectural Antiquities of Normandy (1827), Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London (1825 to 1828), Paris and its Environs (1829 to 1831), and Examples of Gothic Architecture (1831). He also produced a book of furniture designs called Gothic Furniture, and assisted architects with detailing for their gothic designs. He ran a drawing school at his house in Bloomsbury.

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: Paper slightly toned within platemark.

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