George Shepherd: Figures by a Townhouse

Description

Figures by a town house, pencil and water colour by George Shepherd, signed in the bottom right corner and probably dates circa 1820.

There are a number of engravings by George Shepherd in the collection of the Royal Academy that are very similar in style to this composition, in colour and draughtsman-like technique.

George “Sidney” Shepherd (5 December 1784 – 1862) was a British draughtsman and water-colourist. At one time, George Shepherd and George Sidney Shepherd were thought to be two different people; it is now believed that they are one and the same person.

Shepherd was a topographical, architectural and landscape painter. Until 1793 he lived in France (where his younger brother was born), returning to Britain on the outbreak of the Great French War. Shepherd was awarded a silver palette by the Society of Arts in 1803 and again in the following year.

In 1831, Shepherd was one of the founder members of the resurrected New Society of Painters in Watercolours (now the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours). The society was first formed in 1807, as a result of the Royal Academy (of Arts), at that time, refusing to accept watercolours, as an important contribution to art. The society attracted leading watercolour artists of that period, including David Cox, Peter De Wint, William Blake, Samuel Prout, Paul Sandby, and Joseph Powell.