Lineage of Forrest · English · 1803 to 1874
Thomas Shotter Boys
Prout's pupil and Bonington's friend: the street elevation, drawn straight and lit from the side.
Boys trained as an engraver, worked in Paris alongside Bonington, and produced the two finest architectural print series of the 1830s and 1840s: Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen (1839), the first fully chromolithographed book, and Original Views of London As It Is (1842). His pencil drawings for them are the point here: street facades drawn with a ruler's honesty and a draughtsman's eye for where the shadow falls.
He is the straight-line counterpart to Prout's broken one. Where Prout wobbles to make stone old, Boys draws the elevation true and lets light and shadow do the ageing. A beginner needs to be able to do both, and Forrest's closes are usually Boys's drawing with Prout's line.
Shotter Boys, London As It Is: Westminster Abbey, 1842. lithograph.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Mrs. Ralph Perkins in memory of Coburn Haskell
What to steal
- 1The facade as an elevation first: plumb verticals, true bays, then perspective applied to it.
- 2Side light. The street is interesting because one side is in shadow.
- 3Figures and carriages placed to lead the eye down the street.
How to look
- Check the verticals with a pencil held plumb. They are vertical.
- Find the shadow side and count how many values it contains.
Studies 3 guided · 15 plate copies
All 18 →
Master studyShotter Boys
Westminster Abbey from London As It Is
A great facade in side light, with the street to measure it
3h
Master studyShotter Boys
Regent Street toward the Quadrant
A curved street, a straight facade, and the vanishing point that moves
2.5h
Master studyShotter Boys
The Mosque, Cordova
A forest of arches in perspective, with two figures for scale
3h
Plate copyShotter Boys
Regent Street Looking Towards the Quadrant
Shotter Boys, 1842: a plate copy from crayon on stone
2h
Plate copyShotter Boys
St. Dunstans Fleet Street
Shotter Boys, 1842: a plate copy from crayon on stone
2h
Plate copyShotter Boys
Westminster Abbey, Hospital and Company
Shotter Boys, 1842: a plate copy from crayon on stone
2h
Works
18 public-domain
Environs of Windsor Castle
n.d. · Watercolor
Picturesque Sketches in Spain: The Mosque, Cordova
1837 · lithograph
Picturesque Sketches in Spain: Remains of a Roman Bridge on the Guadalquiver, Cordova
1837 · color lithograph
Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen
1839 · lithograph
Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen: St. Laurent, Rouen, France
1839 · lithograph
Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen: St. Etienne du Mont and the Pantheon, Paris
1839 · lithograph
Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen: La Chapelle de l'Institut, Paris
1839 · lithograph
Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen: Laon, France
1839 · lithograph
Regent Street Looking Towards the Duke of York's Column, plate twelve from Original Views of London as It Is
1842 · Hand-colored lithograph
Regent Street Looking Towards the Quadrant, plate eighteen from Original Views of London as It Is
1842 · Hand-colored lithograph
St. Dunstans Fleet Street, plate 23 from Original Views of London as It Is
1842 · Hand-colored lithograph
Westminster Abbey, Hospital and Company, plate seven from Original Views of London as It Is
1842 · Hand-colored lithograph
Board of Trade, Whitehall, from Downing Street, plate eight from Original Views of London as It Is
1842 · Hand-colored lithograph
London As It Is: Westminster Abbey
1842 · lithograph
London As It Is: Board of Trade, Whitehall, from Downing Street
1842 · lithograph
London As It Is: Regent Street, looking towards the Quadrant
1842 · lithograph
London As It Is: Regent Street, looking towards the Duke of York's Column
1842 · lithograph
London As It Is: St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street
1842 · lithograph