An original watercolour view of Pinners Hall, in the City of London, circa 1820, probably after George Shepherd's original watercolour in the City of London collections at the Guildhall.

DESCRIPTION: Watercolour in colour, captioned in early pen flourish 'Pinners Hall.' The early London building in Old Broad Street in the City of London was originally home to the Company of Pinners, later used for a variety of uses, including public meetings, especially of religious, non-conformist type during the 18th Century. It was finally demolished in 1798, apparently with no visual record.

The youthful George Shepherd had apparently embarked upon a series of drawing of interesting London buildings, being only 16 at the time of the demolition and it is assumed that he worked up his early sketches into a finished watercolour in about 1815, this the only known image of Pinners Hall held in the City of London collections. Many of Shepherd's paintings were turned into prints during his life time, but not, apparently, this one.

This supposed early copy is interesting on several counts. It seems to date from not long after the original and bears all the stylistic hall-marks of Shepherd himself in watercolour technique as comparison with the original shows. It is, however, about half the size and exhibits certain 'creative' differences. For example the original shows two girls buying fruit in the foreground left, where ours clearly shows a boy and girl; an adult figure behind them has gone in our version. The figures opposite with dog are altered and have different shadows. The chimneys show minor variations also. Despite this, this is very much the same view that Shepherd sketched in the 1790's and may well have been one produced by the art himself or one of his pupils for sale in his London shop during the 1820's and 1830's.

The quality of this work is outstanding and would be a positive asset for any office of the present day Pinners Hall which is now for banking or conferences.

SIZE: Image: 221 x 145mm

with border:275mm x 195mm

CONDITION: Small corner tear where removed from mounting, not affecting the image, in fine bright state.

£250.00

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