Elizabeth Harvey-Lee
THOMAS SHOTTER BOYS (1803-1874)
Rue Notre Dame, Paris
(1838 to 1839 London)
Artists/Makers/Factories
THOMAS SHOTTER BOYS (1803-1874)
Medium
Original colour lithograph.
Signed/Inscribed/Dated
Initialled in the key stone (the principal drawing stone printed with black ink).
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Width
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261.00mm wide
[10.28 inches wide]
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Height
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370.00mm high
[14.57 inches high]
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Condition
Generally good condition.
Description / Expertise
Original colour lithograph, c1838.
(Reference von Groschwitz 24x; Abbey Travel 33)
An artists' colourman's premises is shown next to a boot shop, with a distant view of the church of Notre Dame.
Boys worked for extended periods in Paris 1823-1837 and became interested in the newly invented technique of colour lithography.
On his permanent return to London in 1837 he pioneered original colour lithography for translating twenty-nine of his watercolour drawings into prints for publication as "Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen etc", issued in 1839.
Each print demanded multiple stones in superimposed printings, a different stone being used for each colour. Extremely complex and time-consuming. Shotter Boys drew all of the stones himself and effectively created the first ever artist's original colour lithographs, fifty years ahead of his time.
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