Stothard

Stothard, THOMAS, designer and painter, was the son of a London innkeeper, who kept the Black Horse in Long Acre, and was born there, 17th August 1755. He received a respectable education in different boarding-schools, and on his father's death, having shown a predilection for the use of the pencil, was bound apprentice to a pattern-drawer in the city, but was released from his engagement before the term of expiry, and betook himself to more artistic work. His first notable effort was a series of designs for the Town and Country Magazine, which was followed by his imaginative compositions for Bell's British Poets and the Novelist's Magazine. The popularity of these was so great that for many years his services were constantly in request by the leading publishers in London. His earliest pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy were 'The Holy Family' and 'Ajax defending the Body of Patroclus.' In 1791 he was chosen an associate, in 1794 a member, and in 1813 librarian of the Academy. He died 27th April 1834. Stothard was a most graceful and facile illustrator. Not less than 3000 of his designs have been engraved, including those to Boydell's Shakespeare, The Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, and Rogers' Italy and Poems. His paintings, although skillfully 'composed' and finely coloured, are destitute of the originality and force that come from a study of nature. Perhaps the best known is his 'Canterbury Pilgrims,' engraved in 1817. See the Life (1851) by Mrs Bray (q.v.), the widow of his son, CHARLES ALFRED STOTHARD (1786-1821), who acquired a great reputation as an antiquarian draftsman.