London Bridge, from above Bridge

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Office for Budget Responsibility, 102 Petty France

Edmund Walker began as a miniature painter on ivory, abandoning the practice as photography grew in popularity. He then turned to architectural draughtsmanship, making sketches of country seats and selling them to the owners. His views of the Thames Embankment (completed 1870) were exhibited at the Royal Academy, as were many of his architectural drawings. Sometime before 1851 he began working for the publishers Day & Son. He made watercolour views and lithographs of the interiors of the Great Exhibition and lithographed William Simpson’s sketches of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny for the firm. He reportedly ‘never fully recovered’ from the effect of the failing fortunes of Day & Son, late in his career. Walker died in 1882, aged 68.
Watercolourist and painter William Simpson was born in Glasgow, the son of a marine engineer and mechanic. He trained as a lithographer under David Macfarlane and later Allan and Ferguson, and also studied at the Glasgow School of Design. In 1851 he moved to London to work for the lithographers Day & Son. He was sent to cover the Crimean War in 1854, after which he became known as ‘Crimean Simpson’. In 1866 he became an artist for the ‘Illustrated London News’, travelling in India, Russia and Afghanistan, and covering several major military campaigns of the 19th century. In 1874 he became a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolour. He was also an amateur archaeologist and a prolific writer. Simpson died in London, aged 75.

Places

England, River Thames, London, London Bridge, Monument to the Great Fire, City of London, Church of St. Magnus the Martyr

Subjects

rowing boat, topography, townscape/cityscape, Victorian Genre, river, shore, man, monument, bridge (urban), spire, paddle steamer, sailboat

Materials & Techniques

lithograph, coloured lithograph

Artist

Edmund Walker (1813/14 - 1882)
William Simpson (1823 - 1899)

Title

London Bridge, from above Bridge

Date

published 1 May 1852

Medium

Coloured lithograph

Acquisition

Purchased from Vicars Bros, July 1955

GAC number

3282