Malton, Thomas (1748 - 1804)
London; The Piazza, Covent Garden.
Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour. c.1770.
Exhibited: possibly Malton's first Royal Academy exhibit, 'A View in Covent Garden in Watercolours', 1773. No.186; Spink; from where acquired by the previous owner.
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The son of an engraver specialising in architectural prints, Malton made a career out of these precise renderings of urban views. He made drawings of Bath, but he was above all a Londoner. The West End was home and the theatre at the heart of his life. The playbill pasted to the corner pier advertising 'Love makes a man: Or, the Fop's Fortune' (Cibber) and 'The Citizen' (Murphy). Malton entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1773 and this is possibly his first R.A. exhibit of the same year. He published his A Picturesque Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster with 100 plates in 1792.
This work appears in the Exhibition:
BRITISH WORKS ON PAPER 2024