Neo-classicism and Greek Revival

(b Philadelphia, PA, June 23, 1822; d Claymont, DE, March 27, 1888).

American illustrator and printmaker. After being exposed early to the Neo-classical style of John Flaxman, Darley began his career as an illustrator in Philadelphia in 1842. Following a sketching trip west of the Mississippi during the summer of that year, he produced outline drawings that were adapted into lithographs appearing in Scenes in Indian Life (1843). His early book illustrations were published in periodicals such as Democratic Review and Godey’s Magazine. Working in line drawing, lithography and wood- and steel-engraving, his first major success was his series of illustrations for John Frost’s Pictorial History of the United States (1844).

After moving to New York in 1848, Darley dominated the field of American illustration with his illustrations of Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper’s tales and novels. He produced about 500 illustrations for Cooper’s novels and a similar number for Benson J. Lossing’s Our Country (1875–7...

(b London, 1771; d London, Dec 1843).

English architect, writer and illustrator. A brilliant draughtsman, speculative archaeologist and an avid reader of ancient myth, he was one of England’s most remarkable visionary architects. His career began in 1787, when he was apprenticed to James Wyatt. Two years later he entered the Royal Academy Schools, London, and won the Silver Medal in his first year and the Gold in the next. He then left for Italy, where he visited all the important Classical sites as well as less well-known sites in the Roman Campagna. He usually travelled with painters and architects, most often with C. H. Tatham and G. A. Wallis (1770–1847). Gandy won a special medal in an Accademia di S Luca competition in 1795 but was forced to return to London in 1797 because of the advance of Napoleon’s army into Italy and the bankruptcy of his financial supporter John Martindale.

Gandy was unable to set up an architectural practice when he returned to England owing to financial difficulties and worked for ...

(Aleksandrovich)

(b Nikol’skoye-Cherenchitsy estate, nr Torzhok, 1751; d Moscow, 2/Jan 3, 1804).

Russian architect, theorist, illustrator, poet, Musician and inventor. An enlightened dilettante and encyclopedist from a princely family, he studied architecture on his own and travelled in western Europe (1775, 1776–7), above all in France and Italy. On his return to Russia L’vov worked at the Foreign Ministry and acquired a reputation as an architect from the early 1780s. His earliest works—the Neva Gate (1780–87) of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg, the single-domed cathedral of St Joseph (1780–98) in Mogilyov and the similar five-domed church (1785–96) at the monastery of SS Boris and Gleb in Torzhok—are characterized by their austere simplicity, spareness of form and pronounced monumentality. They became the model for many Russian Neo-classical churches of the late 18th century and the early 19th. L’vov’s works for St Petersburg include the Post Office (1782–9), unexecuted designs for the Cabinet on the Nevsky Prospect (...

(b Rouen, Nov 11, 1738; d Paris, May 7, 1826).

French painter, illustrator and writer. He began his studies in Rouen and, at 17, won first prize for drawing at the city’s Académie. Shortly afterwards he travelled to Paris, entering the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture as a student of Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre. In 1767–8 he was in Rome, a fact confirmed by a number of dated and inscribed drawings and paintings, including the pen, ink and wash drawing Landscape Inspired by the Gardens of the Villa d’Este at Tivoli (Paris, Ecole N. Sup. B.-A.). He was in Switzerland in 1776, where he spent several years drawing illustrations for Beát Zurlauben’s Tableau de la Suisse ou voyage pittoresque fait dans les treize cantons du Corps Helvétique (Paris, 1780–86). In 1780, having returned to France, he was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale and received (reçu) in 1785 with Jupiter Asleep on Mount Ida (Paris, Ecole N. Sup. B.-A.). Thereafter he regularly exhibited moralistic pictures at the Salon until ...

(b Paris, Aug 29, 1826; d Passy, Aug 4, 1890).

French painter, illustrator and pastellist. He was a pupil of Alexandre Abel de Pujol and François-Edouard Picot at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and made his début at the Salon of 1848. In 1854 he won the Prix de Rome with Abraham Washing the Feet of the Angels (Paris, Ecole N. Sup. B.-A.). In 1855 he sent Noah Cursing Canaan (Aurillac, Mus. Parieu) from Rome for exhibition at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, and the work was bought by the French government. He specialized in classical and biblical subjects executed with the soft colouring, linear precision, prettiness and graceful poses of the Neo-classical style. He became particularly famous for his antique pastoral love scenes, such as The Bowl: Idyll (Pau, Mus. B.-A.), which were much appreciated by such contemporary critics as Jules Claretie (1840–1913). However, he also depicted moments of violence and drama such as the Death of Orpheus...

(b London, Aug 17, 1755; d London, April 27, 1834).

English illustrator, painter and designer. He was one of the most popular, prolific and successful artists of his time and was highly regarded by such contemporaries as Thomas Lawrence and Walter Scott. He was the son of a prosperous publican and completed his apprenticeship as a silk weaver (1770–77), before studying at the Royal Academy, London (1777–c. 1783). From the beginning of his career, book illustration was his main area of activity. His earliest surviving works are in the decorative Rococo mode, but he soon adopted the more idealistic Neo-classicism of John Hamilton Mortimer and James Barry. Together with his friends and near contemporaries, William Blake and John Flaxman, Stothard developed an austere, linear style of draughtsmanship. This is more pronounced in such drawings as Boadicea Inspiring the Britons against the Romans (c. 1780; Boston, MA, Pub. Lib.) than in his published illustrations, where the call for realism was stronger....

(b Dresden, Oct 23, 1775; d Dresden, Feb 11, 1842).

German architect and illustrator. He studied architecture and perspective (1791–5) with Gottlob August Hölzer (1744–1814). As little was built in Dresden until the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–15), he devoted himself to architectural and landscape drawings, often using them as a basis for engravings and etchings. These included the series of plates Dresden mit seinen Prachtgebäuden und schönsten Umgebungen (Dresden, 1807–8). He was appointed court inspector in 1810, subsequently rebuilding the Fürstenschule in Meissen and designing festive decorations for Napoleon’s entry into Dresden (1812) and the return of the king of Saxony (1815). In 1813 he visited Italy and in the same year supervised the rebuilding of the Marienkirche at Bischofswerda, near Dresden, where he later built the Rathaus (1818), a simple cube with a pyramidal roof. His particular Neo-classical style emerged in his designs of ...