Study for a plate from The Triumphs of Temper, in the 1796 Royal Engagements Pocket Book
c. 1795
Medium
Ink wash on paper
Dimensions
2.5 × 6.2 cm (1 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
ink or chalk wash
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
43049
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Thomas Stothard’s delicate ink wash drawing served as a preparatory study for an illustration in the 1796 Royal Engagements Pocket Book, a fashionable diary that combined practical use with literary embellishment. Created around 1795, the tiny work measures just 2.5 by 6.2 centimeters and relates to William Hayley’s popular poem The Triumphs of Temper, first published in 1781. Stothard, a leading British illustrator of the late eighteenth century, frequently supplied designs for books and annuals, helping to bring poetry and sentiment to a wide audience through affordable printed formats. The ink wash technique allowed Stothard to explore light, shadow, and graceful figural groupings on a miniature scale before the composition was engraved. Such studies reveal the careful planning behind the elegant vignettes that adorned personal almanacs and engagement books, objects prized by fashionable readers of the period. Though modest in size, the drawing exemplifies how artists like Stothard bridged fine art and everyday printed culture, making literary imagery part of daily life.
About the Artist
Thomas Stothard · 1755–1834
Thomas Stothard RA (1755–1834) was born on 17 August 1755 at the Black Horse Inn in London's Long Acre, the son of a prosperous publican originally from Stutton near Tadcaster. A delicate child, he was sent at age five to relatives in Yorkshire, attending schools in Acomb, Tadcaster, and later Ilford, Essex, where he honed his drawing skills by copying prints. Following his father's death in 1770,...