Set of pastoral landscapes, each featuring different species of large trees. Rural folk going about their routines provide a sense of scale.  Burgess and Hullmandel were among the earliest practitioners of lithography in England, which in this series replicates the tonal variations of a sepia ink wash drawing very effectively.  Burgess’ attention to the qualities of light exhibited in these prints links him to his contemporaries Constable and Turner.  This work was published the year after Burgess became landscape painter to William IV of England.  Hullmandel also published a similar work on trees with prints in a similar style after James Duffield Harding. (View them on our website.)

The title page contains a dedication to the king and the following poem, reproduced here with its original spelling:

Set of pastoral landscapes, each featuring different species of large trees. Rural folk going about their routines provide a sense of scale.  Burgess and Hullmandel were among the earliest practitioners of lithography in England, which in this series replicates the tonal variations of a sepia ink wash drawing very effectively.  Burgess’ attention to the qualities of light exhibited in these prints links him to his contemporaries Constable and Turner.  This work was published the year after Burgess became landscape painter to William IV of England.  Hullmandel also published a similar work on trees with prints in a similar style after James Duffield Harding. (View them on our website.)

Henry William (H.W.) Burgess was a landscape painter based in London.  He came from the Burgess family of British artists, the son of portraitist William (d. 1812) and grandson of Thomas (fl. 1766-1786), and his own son John-Bagnold (1830-1897) also became a painter. Between 1809 and 1844, Burgess exhibited a large number of works at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, Suffolk Street and the New Water-Colour Society in London.  He also served as landscape painter to William IV beginning in 1826.

These lithographs were published by the firm of Charles Joseph Hullmandel (1789-1850), an English draftsman, lithographer and printer. He worked mainly in London, although he had trained in Paris as a painter and travelled extensively in Europe making topographical drawings. In 1817, on a visit to Munich, he was introduced to lithography by the pioneering lithographer Alois Senefelder. The following year he produced Twenty-four Views of Italy, a set of images he had drawn and lithographed. Dissatisfied with the way his work had been printed, Hullmandel set up his own lithographic press. The quality of work he published by himself and other artists such as Giovanni Belzoni helped popularize the topographical lithograph among British artists.

Full publication information: C. Hullmandel’s Lithographic Establishment, 51 Gt. Marlborough Street, London. J. Dickinson, 114 New Bond Street, London.

Condition: Generally very good with the usual light toning, wear, soiling, soft creases. Few marginal tears neatly restored.  Few with faint dampstaining, mostly confined to margins, not obtrusive.  Disbound holes in far end of margin, can be matted out.

References:

Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs.  France: Librairie Gründ, 1966.  Vol. 2, p. 212.  (Burgess)

"Charles Joseph Hullmandel." The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/library/03/0393/T039379.asp (28 March 2002).

"J(ames) D(uffield) Harding." The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/library/03/0366/T036627.asp (28 March 2002).

Landow, George P. "J. D. Harding and John Ruskin on Nature's Infinite Variety." The Victorian Web. Reprinted from The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 38 (1970). http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/ruskin/harding.html (28 March 2002).

Williamson, George C., ed. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.  London: G. Bell and Sons: 1930.  Vol. 1, pp. 215-216. (Burgess)