The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born 1755. Died 1834. Aged 79.] Apprenticed at an early age to a pattern draughtsman. Subsequently, and for many years, he furnished the illustrations to “The Novelist’s Magazine.” Became the reigning prince of illustrators, and for fifty years continued to adorn the pages, not only of contemporary literature, but of our poets from Chaucer all down to Rogers. His most famous productions are the illustrations to “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” to “Robinson Crusoe,” to “Rogers’s Italy,” the Procession of the Flitch of Bacon, the Pilgrimage to Canterbury, and the Wellington Shield. He made many designs for sculptors; amongst others, that for Chantrey’s “Sleeping Children,” in Lichfield cathedral. At one time or another he attempted every branch of the limner’s art. He had great powers of imagination, moulded and directed by unflagging industry and the severest application. His genius is peculiarly English. He studied deeply the works of Raffaelle and Durer, but was no slavish imitator of these, or of any other men. The grace that clings to his works is essentially the expression of his own mind. Let us see his productions how, or when, or where we may, his spirit is detected at once, and we say, “This is Stothard.” His female figures, not always strictly correct in drawing, are exquisitely graceful. His life passed evenly in the performance of labour in which he delighted. He was a good man, and his works are his annals. [From the marble executed by E. H. Baily, R.A., in. 1825, for Sir Thomas Lawrence.]