North Front of St. Martin’s Church

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

This aquatint print was published as part of ‘A Picturesque Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster’ (1792-1801), a series of aquatint prints by Thomas Malton junior. The view of the ‘North Front of St. Martin's Church’ is plate 24 in the series of 100 views. The church, also known as St. Martin-in-the-Fields, is located to the northeast corner of Trafalgar Square. The current building, completed in 1726, was designed by Scottish architect James Gibbs (1682-1754). Well-known 18th-century figures buried in St. Martin's include the French sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac (1702-1762), furniture-maker Thomas Chippendale (c.1718-1779) and the notorious thief and prison breaker Jack Sheppard (1702-1724).

Thomas Malton junior was a teacher of perspective, draughtsman, etcher and aquatint engraver of views after his own designs and caricatures after Thomas Rowlandson. He was born in London, the son of the architectural draughtsman Thomas Malton senior and the brother of James Malton, who also became a well known draughtsman and aquatint engraver. Malton junior worked in Dublin for three years for the architect John Gandon and later studied at the Royal Academy Schools. He also worked as a scene painter, as well as running evening drawing classes, at which Turner took lessons in perspective. From 1796 until 1804 he lived in Long Acre, off St. Martin’s Lane. He is best known for his careful drawings of London buildings.

Places

England, London, Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

Subjects

hoop-rolling, topography, genre, boy, woman, dress, child, street, church, spire, tower

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, coloured aquatint

Artist

Thomas, jnr Malton (1748 - 1804)

Title

North Front of St. Martin’s Church

Date

16 May 1795

Medium

Coloured aquatint

Dimensions

height: 40.70 cm, width: 30.60 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from F B Daniell, April 1951

GAC number

1284