‘Why no flowers for Nellie, orchid-painter extraordinaire?’ we asked in a previous post. In her 56 years as Royal Horticultural Society orchid artist Nellie Roberts captured an extraordinary amount of fugitive beauty. She worked in a room above the family shop in Loughborough Road, died, aged 86, in 1959, and rests in Grave No. 262 D3 […]
A litter-bin now marks the spot in Vauxhall Gardens where once stood Roubiliac’s life-size statue of Handel: Free Vauxhall Gardens guided history walk, 21 May 2018
Vauxhall Gardens drew visitors from around the world in its 18th-century prime, not least to see Roubiliac’s sensational statue. Pale imitations sprang up elsewhere in England, and as far away as America, Australia and Russia. None could quite match Jonathan Tyers’ Vauxhall Gardens for originality and crowd-pulling spectacle with a purpose. Tyers helped civilise this […]
Anthony Eyton RA on the ‘lure of Brixton’
The 20-year-old Van Gogh lasted only a year in Stockwell before leaving his digs in 87 Hackford Road (1873), it’s said, because he was getting nowhere with Eugenie Loyer, the landlady’s daughter. The painter seems to have left behind just the one ‘Van Gogh’, a sketch of the house that was not accepted as by […]
Love’s Labours Lost: the Morley College murals of Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden
Vauxhall History brings you an opportunity to rediscover the extraordinary murals at Morley College.
Vincent van Gogh in Stockwell
Vincent van Gogh moved to London in May 1873 at the age of 20 and lived intermittently in the city until 1876. During this time he is known to have visited, and written about, several of the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibitions, Christie’s and iconic sites including St Paul’s Cathedral and Hampton Court. He also […]
Felix Slade (1788-1868)
Felix Joseph Slade, the son of a wealthy Surrey Landowner Robert Slade, was born in Lambeth on 6 August 1788. Felix, a rich bachelor, was a passionate collector and purchased many books, engravings and glass objects with which he adorned his home in Walcot Place (Kennington Road). When he died on 29 March 1868, four […]
Peter Schmidt (1931-1980)
Peter Schmidt (1931–1980) was a painter, artist, teacher and composition and colour theorist. His work has been collected by the Tate, who have two of his prints, both called Flowing in the Right Direction. Five works are in the UK Government Art Collection. With his student and later friend Brian Eno, Schmidt developed a process […]
Richborne Terrace
Andrew Nicholl, RHA, a 19th-century Irish artist lived at 33 Richmond Terrace (now 72 Richborne Terrace) in 1882/3. And in 1872, after living at other addresses in the area, he moved into 26 Osborne Terrace (now 55 Richborne Terrace). Richborne Terrace came into being in 1936 when the two sides of the same road (Osborne […]
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was born at 210 South Lambeth Road on 19th September 1867. He came from a big family, his mother Annie having 11 other children though not all survived childhood. He was educated at the City of London School and showed a natural aptitude for art and drawing. In 1884 Arthur became an insurance […]
Samuel Prout (1783-1852)
Samuel Prout was born in 1783 and studied at Plymouth Grammar School. As a teenager he tried to earn a living as an illustrator and accompanied the historical painter B. R. Haydon on a tour of Devon and produced some good work but in 1796 his drawings of Cornwall for the publisher John Britton were […]
Andrew Nicholl
Andrew Nicholl RHA (1804-1886) was the son of a Belfast bootmaker and started out as a compositor on the Northern Whig newspaper, but from an early age was interested in art. His artistic talents were spotted by Sir James Emerson Tennent, the Colonial Secretary, who became his patron, funding a trip to London in the early […]
James Sowerby (1757-1822)
The Sowerby family is without equal in the history of natural history for the depth and variety of its contribution to science. Fourteen members of the family published, wrote or illustrated natural history works between about 1780 and 1954. Subjects covered included botany, zoology, conchology, palaeontology and mineralogy. They worked with and for most of […]
Lambeth School of Art
Lambeth School of Art was established in 1854 by William Gregory, vicar of St Mary the Less Church. St Mary the Less Church was in Princes Road (now called Black Prince Road). It was demolished in the 1960s. At the end of the 1850s, the school was solely a night school. Dean Gregory was Rector, […]
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677)
Wenceslaus (or Wenzel) Hollar was born in Prague on 13 July 1607, and died in London on the 28 March 1677. His family was ruined by the capture of Prague in the Thirty Years War, and though originally destined for the law, Hollar was determined to become an artist. A major influence upon Hollar’s […]
Hercules Road
Artist and poet William Blake and his wife lived in a large house which was on the site of present day No.23 Hercules Road (Penlington Place). A visitor once came upon them sitting naked in the summerhouse where they were reciting passages from Paradise Lost. ‘Come in,’ Blake called out. ‘It’s only Adam and Eve, […]
Hackford Road
The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh lived in this road for a short period in 1873-74. He lodged at No. 87 with Ursula Loyer, the French widow of a curate. While there, he fell in love with Eugenie, the widow’s daughter who rejected him because she was engaged to someone else. The well-received 2003 play […]
David Cox (1783-1859)
David Cox, the son of a blacksmith, was born in Birmingham on 29 April 1783 and in his youth was apprenticed to become a miniature painter. Following his employer’s death, he moved on to become a scenery painter at Birmingham and Leicester theatres. In 1803 he moved to London to work on scenery at Astley’s […]
Hablot Knight Browne
Hablot Knight Browne (1815-1882) was an English artist, famous for illustrating works by Charles Dickens. Hablot Knight Browne was born on 15 June 1815 in Kennington and was apprenticed to the engraver William Finden who gave him his only artistic education. At the age of 19 he gave up engraving to pursue other artistic interests. […]
Patrick Nasmyth
Patrick Nasmyth (1787-1831) was born in Edinburgh on 7 January 1787. He was the eldest of 11 children of the Scottish artist Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840). One of his brothers was the engineer James Nasmyth, who worked for a while in Lambeth. Patrick Nasmyth had an early love of nature and often played truant from school […]
William Blake
William Blake (1757-1827) was a poet, a painter and engraver, who created a unique form of illustrated verse. His poetry, inspired by mystical visions, is among the most original, lyric and prophetic in the English language. Blake’s style has been described as a pre-Romantic. Blake, the son of a hosier, was born in London. Although […]
John Bacon
John Bacon (1740-1799) was a British Neoclassical sculptor who perfected certain sculpturing techniques. He was born in Southwark, the son of a cloth worker from Somerset. In 1754, aged 14, he was apprenticed in a porcelain works at Lambeth, London. There he was at first employed in painting small ornamental pieces of china, but he […]
