Egglestone Abbey, near Barnard Castle, County Durham

Location

Country: Panama
City: Panama City
Place: British Embassy

J. M. W. Turner was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy Schools from the age of 14. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1802 and opened a public gallery, an extension to his home in Harley Street, two years later. Turner also began to build Sandycombe Lodge, Twickenham, from 1812. After the hostilities with France, he travelled in Europe, including a visit to Italy in 1819. Throughout the 1820s he drew topographical subjects, notably for C. Heath’s ‘Picturesque Views in England and Wales’ (1827-38). Some 370 engravings after his works of the 1830s helped spread his fame through Europe and America. In 1845 he served as Acting President of the Academy. He bought 6 Davis Place, Chelsea, the following year, where he died aged 76.
Landscape engraver and draughtsman Thomas Higham was born in Suffolk. After serving an apprenticeship with antiquary and engraver John Greig, his earliest published works were plates for James Storer’s ‘Antiquarian Itinerary’ (1815). Higham also both drew and engraved plates for the ‘Stationer’s Almanack’ from c.1826-39. In the late 1820s he began using steel plates and some of his earliest such works were for James Elmes’s ‘Metropolitan Improvements’ (1827-32). Among his most admired prints are those after the work of J. M. W. Turner. Higham exhibited at the Society of British Artists, London, in 1825, 1826 and 1830. He was an auditor of the Artist’s Annuity Fund. Higham was a widow by the time of his death in Islington at the age of c.49.

Places

England, County Durham

Subjects

topography, tree, cow, river, bridge (rural), path, house, castle, abbey, ruin, tiled roof

Materials & Techniques

engraving, coloured engraving

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851)
Thomas Higham (1796 - 1844)

Title

Egglestone Abbey, near Barnard Castle, County Durham

Date

Medium

Coloured engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Baynton-Williams, February 1977

GAC number

12834