London,: 1837., Engraved & Published By F.C. Lewis, Engraver To The King, 53, Charlotte Street, Portland Place.
Physical Description
[3], 20 pl.; 550 mm.
General Note
The first three, unnumbered pl. carry engraved text.
Contents
[T.pl.] - Reference To The Plates - Subscribers To The Work - [Plates].
Responsibility Note
All numbered plates are signed as drawn by Claude and engraved by F.C. Lewis.
Each carries F.C. Lewis's publisher's imprint and the date, 1837.
References
A survey of reproduction techniques is S. Lambert, The image multiplied: five centuries of printed reproductions (1987).
On the reception of Claude's paintings and drawings in Britain see M. Kitson, 'Turner and Claude', in Turner Stud., 2:2 (1983), p.2-15; Classic ground: British artists and the landscape of Italy, by D. Bull et al. [ exhibition catalogue] (1981); C. Pace, 'Claude the enchanted: interpretations of Claude in England in the earlier nineteenth century', in Burlington Magazine, 111 (1969), p.733-40; D. Howard, 'Some eighteenth-century English followers of Claude', in Burlington Magazine, 111 (1969), p.726-33; H.V.S. Ogden and M.S. Ogden, English taste in landscape in the seventeenth century (1955); E.W. Manwaring, Italian landscape in eighteenth-century England (1925; repr. 1965).
Summary Note
The history of this group of Claude's drawings is described briefly in the 'Reference To The Plates': 'The original Drawings from which the following Twenty Plates have been Engraved, were brought into this Country from Madrid by Mr. Binda, they then became the property of Mr. Payne Knight, and were by him bequeathed to the British Museum. - none of them have been before engraved.'
The plates all show landscape drawings. The unnumbered vignette on the title-plate 'it is thought represents Claude's House, the Tempietta'.
The list of 'Subscribers To The Work' includes two Royal Academicians - John Constable and A.W. Callcott.
Immediate source of Acquisition
Presented by , J. F. Lewis RA in, 1867 (see 'Librarian's Report, RA Annual Report for 1867, p. 27).
Provenance
The front endpaper is inscribed in ink, 'Presented to the Royal Academy by J.F. Lewis R.A.'
Binding Note
19th-century red watered cloth-covered boards; spine lettered 'Lewis' Claudes'.