View towards Bassilden, from Streatley Hill.

Joseph Farington
View towards Bassilden, from Streatley Hill.
History of the River Thames
London, J. &. J. Boydell 1793-96
Aquatints by Joseph Constantine Stadler, printed in dark sepia on paper, some sheets of which are watermarked ‘1799’
220x320mm
£120
Basildon Park and the water meadows, from the top of Streatley Hill.
Joseph Farington (1747-1821), became a pupil of Richard Wilson in 1763. At the age of twenty-one he joined the Incorporated Society of Artists, and was admitted a student of the Royal Academy at its formation in 1768. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1783 and full member in 1785, and in later years took an ‘active and influential part in the government of that institution.’ The prosperous publisher and printseller Alderman John Boydell (1719-1804), had elected Lord Mayor in 1790, and had decided to celebrate his mayoralty with the retrospective publication of these magnificent views (dedicated to the King) taken along the course of the River Thames.